


Young Blood

by Elekat



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Melinda May is a Mother, Mostly OC, Small amount of Philinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-03-21 15:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 44,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3697106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elekat/pseuds/Elekat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The problem with being a teenager with a secret in a building full of spies who keep secrets with secrets and who are masters at figuring out your secret, is that you must always be one step ahead of the people who are trained to be one step ahead of you. SHIELD agents aren't supposed to have kids. So what happens when one kid finds herself back where it all started, in SHIELD?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introducing Mei

S.H.I.E.L.D took her baby. It was supposed to be as simple as that. At the time, she was one of their best agents, having a child would take her away from them. They could have that.

That was thirteen years ago.

Then Bahrain happened and her daughter was the last thing on her mind, till she started appearing in her dreams.

It haunted her. The fact that she had lost the child she had wanted so badly. She didn't know why they would do that, she didn't even get to hold her.

* * *

Now, S.H.I.E.L.D is being rebuilt, and she is in the middle of it.

"Where is Skye?" May asked after her agent doesn't show up for Tai Chi.

"Sent her on a mission early this morning, high school. Need to bring in a teenager who is showing abilities beyond her years," Coulson said. May nodded as she walked into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea.

Internally, she elder woman was wondering what was so special about this teenager that they needed her. Was she super smart? Could she help Simmons? Fitz isn't how he used to be, so they still needed someone to help with that.

It was only a few hours later when they got notified that Skye and another girl were walking into the base.

"She'll need a lanyard…" Billy said as he watched as the two appeared.

The firs they saw was Skye, walking in in clothing that a teenager or civilian would wear. Converse, long pants, and a hoodie. Second was Bobbi, who had flown the plain, in her usually jeans and a t-shirt. Thirdly and last was a young girl. Obviously of Chinese decent, her skin was tan, and hair black. She was short, and very thin. She was wearing black leggings with small white dots on them, and a large, knit sweater which through you could see a white tank top.

"Welcome to the playground…?" Billy said as he made his way over.

"Mei," the girl said in a clear voice. Billy nodded but didn't write it down, it was obvious he would ask again later.

She looked around quizzically, her eyes were a deep blue and shone with something that nobody could place.

Silently, she ran her fingers through her hair. From her forehead to the back of her head. Her hair fell back into place after, perfect on her smooth skin.

"You must be Mei!" Jemma said from behind Coulson. Rushing forward, she went up to the young girl. Her expression didn't change as she saw Jemma, and didn't say anything. "I'm Jemma Simmons, can I take you to the lab? I want to get your blood type in case anything happens," Jemma said with a smile as she linked arms with the girl.

"Don't scare her…" Skye muttered as she looked at the two. She wasn't mad, just wanted to be cautious. The girl didn't seem to mind though, being dragged away.

Mei let herself be dragged down past Coulson and May, not making eye contact.

* * *

"This will only hurt a little bit," Jemma said with a smile. Billy was also standing in the room with a clipboard of questions. May and Coulson were by the door, waiting.

"Full name," Billy asked.

"Mei Zella Sung," Mei said without blinking as she watched the blood go into the tube.

"Date of birth?"

"October 31st 2001,"

"Where did you live?"

"New York City," Mei said without skipping a beat. It would seem as though she had practiced for these questions, planned answers.

She didn't flinch when the needle was taken out either. Coulson observed that she didn't flinch at all actually. She was like May in that way. Besides the names, pronounced the same.

She sat quietly as Jemma did a full body scan and then she was free from medical prodding.

"Why don't we show you where your room is going to be," Coulson said as he walked out with Mei on one said and May on the other. Skye followed quickly. "These are where all the rooms are, you'll get one on the BUS if you take it on a mission anywhere," he explained.

The young girl nodded and didn't speak. After being shown her room, she was left to unpack the bag that was sitting on the bed. Skye sat down on the chair that sat in the corner.

"So, you're from New York? The Big Apple?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes. Or well, I was. I was born in London England, a S.H.I.E.L.D base there, actually. Agents weren't allowed to have kids so I was taken away. Lived with some old retired agent my whole life," Mei explained as she put her clothes in the dresser. She didn't have that many, most of her bag was taken up by other things.

"Better than me, HYDRA killed my mom, my dad is psycho and S.H.I.E.L.D moved me around every few months," Skye said. Mei nodded as she placed some books on a shelf.

"I suppose," she said and then placed another box on the bed.

Neither girl talked as Skye watched the girl put away her things. It was one regular sized box, one suitcase, and one smaller box. All in all it included clothing, books, sheets, quilt, and art things. The girl seemed not to mind the company.

"You know, I wish I had this much stuff," Skye said with a frown. "They took my van when I got here, and now that I think about it never gave it back,"

"I doubt you'll get it back," she placed the empty boxes and suitcase under the bed. "The agency that took that from you, died. This is a new era, a new S.H.I.E.L.D."

Skye nodded along with what the girl was saying. In a way, it was a new era. A new time for the agency. The old one was gone, and replaced with this new one that was slowly coming about. The only problem with this one was that nobody knew if it would thrive, or crash and burn.

 


	2. Training

"Why is it so cold in here?" a voice broke through Skye's concentration as she punched the bag hanging from the wall. She missed a beat, and was suddenly off rhythm. She needed back on it or else May would be angry. That was never good.

Skye didn't know what to answer, she hadn't noticed it before but now she did. It was quite cold. Why was it like that, because they were encased in cement?

"I don't know," Skye said. Mei nodded and walked into Skye's eye sight. Today she was wearing skin tight leggings and a brown knit sweater that was form fitting, but Skye could see the lace like back. The girls hair was pulled up into a pony tail, revealing her ears which had three piercings, each.

She looked at the punching bag then Skyes hands. Watching as the older girl got into a rhythm.

"Doesn't that hurt?" she asked. Skye shrugged.

"As long as you punch the right way and have them covered it is fine. You're sore when you first start. The skin needs to become tough," Mei rubbed her hands subcontiously. It was obvious she didn't like that idea. Her nails were perfectly maniqured. Something that wouldn't be good if you wanted to punch something, or fight.

While Skye continued to punch, Mei went and sat down on a bench at the side of the gym. She pushed a ecersize ball out of her way with her sock covered foot.

When May walked in she saw the younger one sitting, watching, while the older one worked up a sweat. She didn't say anything as she knew that when Skye saw her she'd start her push ups.

"What are you doing?" she asked Mei without turning to look at the girl. Mei didn't seem to mind as she looked down at the blue mats.

"Watching," Mei said as she looked up again but not at the agent, at Skye. She stood up. "Skye, come by my room when you're… done,"

The young girl left the room without looking back. Skye figured she'd curl up on her bed. She complained she was cold after all.

* * *

The next day the same thing happened. Mei came in, complained she was cold, and then sat down on the bench. This time she had a book in her hands.

"Did you know they burnt books in Nazi Germany?" she said suddenly without looking up. "They didn't want people reading other thoughts, expecially if they were Jewish,"

Skye didn't know where this was coming from until she glanced over and saw the girl was reading a book based in Nazi Germany.

"Yeah. I did," Skye said with a nod. She'd read the book before when she was in high school and in one of her foster homes. She'd found it on the bookshelf.

They lapsed into silence again. As silent as it could be with Skye's fists pounding on the bag and the sound of pages rubbing against each other and flipping.

This was how the first week of Mei's time at the playground went. Her coming and visiting Skye in the gym, then telling her to come and see her in her room when May walked in.

At one point, Skye wondered why Mei wasn't asking to be taught. She seemed like the kind of kid who'd ask that. She didn't though, she just watched. Glances.

* * *

On the eighth day of this routine, Mei brought in pencils and a book.

She sat down silently, opened the metal container and pulled out a blue pencil. She also opened the page and brought the pencil down onto it.

There was no talk of the cold.

No random facts that Skye acted like she already knew.

Just the sound of punching and of a pencil on paper.

Skye had no clue what Mei was doing, but didn't say anything about it. Her amount of punches had been upped. She didn't know when May would walk in, when Mei would walk out.

This routine was becoming soothing. Something to look forward to, the quiet company of a young girl who always brought in something new.

When May walked in, and Skye was getting ready for her push ups, Mei placed her pencil back in the container and closed the lid with a quiet click.

It was a sound that was hardly heard. Yet, it was so loud that Skye thought it was the only sound she heard.

Mei stood and started for the exit of the room. Her notebook held to her chest, Skye watched as she left.

This happened for another week. Mei walking in with a pencil and book and drew. Skye didn't know what she was drawing, but she was okay with it.

* * *

On the seventeenth day Mei didn't show up. Skye had no clue where the girl was.

She didn't go look for her, she had an S.O. that would and could come in at any given time. She didn't want to get in trouble. No way.

After her training and shower, she made her way to Mei's room. It was empty. The bed was made, but the sketch book and pencils missing as much as the girl was.

Skye walked towards the lab to see if she could find Jemma.

Mei was in the lab, sitting on a counter as Jemma worked. Sketch book on her lap, pencil in hand. She would occasionally look up, but otherwise seemed satisfied with whatever she had drawn.

Skye didn't question her when the metal pencil holder was closed or when she held the book to her chest so only the slightly yellow blank page showed.

She walked with Mei down the hallway in silence, making up for their missing session from the morning.

 


	3. Dominoes

"I'm so  _bored_ ," Skye said. They hadn't had to go out for a while, and she was starting to get stir crazy from sitting there and doing nothing for so long. She had flopped down onto the couch beside Mei, who sat quietly with her legs crossed. Her blue dress folded over her legs, her black leggings covered her skinny legs.

Mei rolled her eyes as she looked down at the book that was in her lap. The cover had a picture of a finger about to hit some dominos.  _The Book Thief_.

"I'm serious. I have no clue how you sit there and just… stare at words all day,"

"I don't stare at them, I absorb them," Mei said as she ran her finger over the side of the book. Books were Mei's life, Skye had noticed, and they meant so much that it was magical watching her with them.

"How? Though photosynthesis?" Skye asked.

"That's plants,"

"Osmosis then," Mei rolled her eyes. Then, something seemed to go off in them. An idea.

She seemed to contemplate it for a second before standing up.

"Where are we? Russia? Germany? England?"

"Switzerland I think…" Skye said as she gave Mei a weird look. Mei just walked off, but soon returned with Skye's jacket and boots. Her own were on her feet.

"Well, agent, we need to go out and buy a couple things," Skye was utterly confused. What were they doing? "I'll get Bobbi or someone to come if it makes you feel better," with a nod, Mei turned and walked off again.

About ten minutes later she reappeared with Bobbi and Hunter. The latter seemed annoyed by this, while the former was amused.

The four walked to one of the cars without a word, and silently left base and headed for a small town.

* * *

The town was not that big, and Skye was wondering why they even needed to be there. They only left if they needed supplies.

"We'll start getting groceries. You two get whatever you wanted to get," Bobbi said before dragging Hunter somewhere. Mei started off and Skye followed. She didn't want the young girl to get hurt or kidnapped.

They walked down the aisles, the other people ignored them. Finally they got to where Mei seemed to want them, the toy section.

"Aren't you a bit old?" Skye asked. She just received a roll of the eyes as Mei started to search. It didn't help that she didn't know, but finally they ended up where they were apparently supposed to go. Board games.

Mei, who had somehow gotten a cart on their walk, put 5 sets of 28 dominoes in. The tiles ranged from black to white, and Skye had no clue why they needed these.

After that, they went to the art section and Mei placed some more art supplies in. The two girls made their way to the clothing and grabbed some warmer clothing. Neither saying a word. Finally they went to the front where Bobbi and Hunter had a full cart.

"Think Coulson is going to kill us?" Hunter asked as he looked between the two carts. Mentally, he was figuring out how much this would all cost.

"His fault for not giving us a limit," Bobbi said with a shrug as they all put everything on the belt. While Bobbi talked to the person behind the desk, Mei looked around. Skye watched the girls eyes wander. She still wanted to know what the dominoes were for.

"Want to tell me now?" Skye asked after the art thing were placed in Mei's room. Mei led her way to the gym where, on the floor that was free of mats, she dumped the dominoes out.

"You said you were bored. I created a solution," she explained as she sat down and patted the floor. Skye followed her lead and sat on the cold, hard ground. Mei picked up a domino and held it in her hand. "This is an age old trick. Well, maybe not ages… but it helped when I was little,"

Mei started to make a line of dominoes standing up. Soon, Skye caught on and followed the girls lead.

Together, the two created a line of dominoes that twisted and turned. Soon, there was a second path leading to the middle.

"What are you both doing?" Mei didn't look up but Skye did. She recognized the voice of her S.O. and didn't want her to get mad.

"Making a domino line," Mei said without looking up before Skye could speak. May nodded and Skye wondered what she would do. May seemed hesitant, like she didn't know what to do. This was odd, because she never was hesitant. She always knew what to do in every situation. So this scared Skye.

Finally, the older woman left the room and the girls to their game.

After they finished, and just as Skye was admiring their work, Mei pushed one domino and slowly each tile descended. They all fell, and the world was left with the sound of a small crash. Skye was speechless and looked up at the clock which was on the wall. They'd been there three hours.

"Why did you do that?" she demanded. Mei did not speak. Only stood up. Without saying anything, she walked out of the room. Skye was confused, so very confused. What was that about? Why did Mei make a long thing of dominoes only to ruin it then walk away?

Skye did not want to clean up the little girl's mess, so she left it. She walked out of the gym, and left the floor littered with the small plastic.

* * *

Later that evening, when she walked into the gym for her nightly training with May, the floor was clean. There was no evidence that there had ever been a young teenager and a young adult playing with dominoes.

"Did you have fun?" May asked as they began their warm ups. Skye looked over at the floor where she had been sitting, only a few hours earlier, with the girl.

"No, not really. Dominoes are for kids," Skye said monotonously. May knew this was a lie though. She'd seen her, she knew what fun looked like when it shone in a person's eyes. It shone in Skye's, even if the young woman didn't realize it.

 


	4. Silence

Skye and Mei didn't speak to each other. The two ate in silence, it was weird considering the two usually had quiet conversations. That part of the table was quiet. Unnaturally quiet.

Skye sat on one side of Coulson, beside her Jemma. May sat on the other side of Coulson with Mei beside her. Soon, Mei sat at the other end of the table with Bobbi and Hunter.

It was questionable, the silence. Nobody had been in the room when Skye got mad about the fallen dominoes. Nobody had seen Mei walk out quietly in her bare feet, making no sound.

"What is with you two?" Simmons finally said one day as she looked between the two. "One minute you're best friends and the next you refuse to talk to each other? What happened?"

Neither girl said anything. Everybody felt slightly awkward and Simmons blushed.

"Welcome to high school," Mei finally said before standing up and grabbing her plate with a half-finished piece of chicken on it, and bringing it to the kitchen. Placing it on the counter, she walked away and down the hall. Her feet made no sound.

* * *

Mei's room is quiet. There is no sound except her footsteps as she walks in, disturbing the quiet. It hardly made a sound, but if listening closely, the sound of feet rubbing on carpet was heard.

The young girl walked over to her bed. She looked down at the quilt, seeming to contemplate her next move.

She didn't like being trapped in a place where she couldn't leave, couldn't go see her friends, couldn't do anything… normal.

Sitting in a secret base with a bunch of agents was not normal. Especially when one was basically a ninja.

Mei walked over to her table that held the new sketch book, and considered drawing but decided against it. Instead, she grabbed her notebook and sat down on her bed with a pen, ready to write.

* * *

"You know violence isn't an effective way to get anger out, right?" Skye turned to see Mei standing in the door way. It was almost in five the morning, the base was dark, and yet there walked the girl in her Pajamas.

"You know sneaking up on someone punching a bag isn't good, right?" Skye said back. Rolling her eyes, Mei walked into the room and over to where Skye started to punch again. Not saying anything, she just watched for a bit. That was, until another person walked into the gym.

Neither girl heard her. Mei was focused on the sound that echoed around the room from Skye's hands hitting the bag. All Skye heard was the blood in her ears.

"Skye, I expected you here… though I was not expecting you aggressive… but Mei, why are you here?" Melinda May appeared in Mei's eyesight. The young girl shrugged without taking her eyes off of what Skye was doing.

Skye stopped punching, and after the last echoes rang through the room she started to pull the wrappings off of her hands. Mei started to leave the room when a voice made her halt. "Mei, I want to talk to you later,"

Nodding, Mei left the room. She walked down the dark hallways of the base. The main lights weren't on, and only the dim ones were. It was as though she was in a horror game, waiting for someone to jump out at her.

Sometimes she wondered if the underground got foggy. Maybe, someone would have a razor pointer, or a zombie would come out.

Well, technically Coulson was brought back from the dead. Maybe he was a zombie.

Mei sighed as she walked back to her room and climbed back into her bed. It wasn't warm any more, so unsatisfying.

* * *

She was piling dominoes on top of each other when May walked into her room. The girl didn't say anything at first as she sat there on the floor, her knees under her, being imprinted on by the harsh fibers of the carpet.

"What happened?" May asked.

"What do you mean?" Mei asked. She brushed a piece of her dark hair away from her face as she stacked another tile.

"With you and Skye. Why are you both not talking?" it was a valid question. Something that Mei didn't have a valid answer to, or any answer at all. She stuck with shrugging, and placed another domino on the stack, then began another one.

May stood there quietly. Mei knew that the old woman most likely wanted a real answer. Sometimes that involved words.

"Why do you go by May?" Mei asked. "If it your last name, shouldn't you go by Melinda?"

"Why do you go by Mei?" May asked. Their names sounded the same.

"Because that's my actual name," Mei said as she gave May a weird look.

May rolled her eyes. "Melinda is for people I am close with," she said. Mei seemed not to accept this answer though.

"That's stupid," she stated without looking up from the piles on her table. "You're close with almost everyone here that matters. They're basically your family, so obviously there is another reason for it. It's not my place though, I just think it's annoying that everyone calls us both Mei/May,"

All the tiles were now lined up in piles, and Mei stood up and wiped off her leggings as though there was something on them. They looked like a forest with lots of little green trees on them.

"What do you mean,  _almost_? And we are not basically a family," May said as she walked and sat on the edge of the bed. Mei had a quilt that was black, but it was covered in sunglasses. Something she had picked up at target about two years prior.

"Common, it's not like you talk to every single person on this base. There are other people that are not your little team. Your family is basically you, Coulson, Skye, Tripp, Simmons, Fitz, Mack, Hunter and Bobbi. You and Coulson and like the parents and they're your dysfunctional kids," Mei said. "Anyone who has eyes can see it,"

May contemplated this. Now that a light was shone on it, it did seem as though she was the mother to these young adult. She was teaching them how to survive in this harsh world. She was bad cop, Coulson the good one.

"You know, sometimes you remind me of Rosa Hubermann," Mei said with a shake of her head. "Although, you don't call people filthy pigs…"

"Who?" May asked as she looked at the young girl oddly.

"You obviously don't read good books," Mei said as she shook her head and grabbed the water bottle off of her table. "Read  _the Book Thief_  then get back to me on that one,"

May gave the teenager a look and stood up, she was about to walk out of the room when Skye came and popped her head in.

"DC called a meeting. Meet in his office in five," she said before leaving.


	5. New Missions

The walk to Coulson's office was quiet. Neither of the two with the same name said anything, but both knew that something was off. It was something different for both though.

For May, it was because Coulson never got someone else to come get her. She always got them herself or he would text her. For Mei, it was because she was never invited to these meeting. Maybe she'd get to go on a mission… bad idea.

Mei wasn't a fan of violence most of the time. Really, she just didn't like it when she had to inflict it. If anyone else wanted to, go right ahead. She wasn't going to participate though.

When they got to his office they saw Skye, Bobbi, Jemma and Fitz all waiting. Mack was in the garage still.

Mei looked around at all the adult's faces and felt out of place. She was thirteen, while all of them were at least 24.

"The SSR was a secret organization that helped the allies in the Second World War," Coulson said to the team. Mei had a feeling that was more for her benefit though. "Nobody outside of S.H.I.E.L.D knows about it. At least, they didn't used to. A school in Canada has a book on it. We need to go in and retrieve this book.

Mei realized this was why she got to know. She had to go back into high school.

Wonderful.

"Sir, how will we do this though?" Jemma asked. "Will Mei go in and get it?"

"It's a restricted book. Only certain students are allowed to get it," Coulson explained. "So, we all will be going in. Posing as a family. You'll gain trust with the keeper and get the book. Then we'll disappear,"

Mei looked around at everyone. Nobody seemed particularly happy about this.

"Agent May will be posing as a substitute PE teacher. She might get the book quicker if she becomes friends with that teacher. Otherwise, Jemma, Fitz, Skye and Mei will be in the high school. There is a second copy in the college. Bobbi, Hunter and I will work there,"

Mei was not very pleased with this. "Will we be your kids, sir?" Jemma asked.

"Yes. You'll all be pretending to be adopted for the most part," Coulson said before handing out files. Mei looked at hers but didn't pick it up. "These files hold everything you will need to know. I want you to study this till you are it, dismissed,"

Mei sighed and picked up the file, sadly, and walked off. She did not plan on this. Pretending to be two adults kid was not on her list of things she planned for life. Right under  _living on a secret base_.

She closed her room's door as soon as she entered and fell down onto her bed. She sighed and stared up at the grey ceiling. She wished she didn't have to live in this place.

When she had been told originally that she was moving she had thought to a mansion or with someone who had a nice house and yard.

Dreams don't come true though, and now she lived in an underground base.

Pulling the blanket at the bottom of her bed up, she curled underneath it and pulled a paper out of the folder.

_Name: Violet Blossom Miller_

_Parents:_

_Charlie Miller_

_Isabella Miller_

_Siblings:_

_Summer Miller (biological)_

_Sophie Miller (adopted)_

_Max Miller (adopted)_

_Michelle Miller (Uncle's wife)_

_Kyle Miller (uncle)_

_Eighth grader, the youngest child_

Mei stared down at this. Her name was Violet? A colour. Her name was a  _colour._

She was glad that at least she wasn't named after a season, but still. Well, usually she was a month but still.

She sighed and let her mind wander. Where would they be going?

It was winter, mid-January, wouldn't Canada be cold? Didn't they have polar bears?

Those questions went through her head and Mei knew she needed to find someone to answer this.

Now.

* * *

"Skye," Skye looked around confused. She was in her bedroom and didn't know where the person calling her name was coming from.

She heard her name again and slowly walked towards the door, the source of it. She didn't know what was going on, and she couldn't put a name to the voice.

That was, until she opened the door and saw Mei standing on the other side of it.

"Mei! You scared me!" Skye said as Mei gave her a look.

"I scared you? All I did was call your name," Skye rolled her eyes as the teenager made her way into the room. "I need you to answer something for me," she said.

"Sure. What?" Skye asked as she sat down on the bland bed spread.

"Are there polar bears in Canada?" Mei asked in a serious tone. Skye started to laugh until she saw that Mei wasn't joking.

"Well, up north. Not where we are going, though." Skye said. Mei nodded, and seemed to be thinking for a second before turning around and walking off. "Yeah! No problem!" she called after the retreating form.

* * *

They were in British Columbia. Mei was freezing cold, it was snowing.

They were in their house, the one that they were using as a cover house. Really, she didn't know how they got it since technically S.H.I.E.L.D didn't exist anymore but she didn't question it.

The house didn't have an insane amount of rooms. Which lead to May and Coulson sharing one, Bobbi and Hunter sharing one, Fitz having his own, Skye and Jemma sharing, and Mei sleeping in her own.

The two basement bedrooms were being used by Mei, and May and Coulson. Everyone else was upstairs.

Mei was hiding in the room that she knew she'd leave soon, and smiled as she was for once in an actual bedroom. The window was small, but it was still a room.

She liked being able to go above ground. Even if it was bloody cold.

"Mei, come on we need to go out and get some stuff!" Skye called down the stairs. Mei sighed, she knew that this wouldn't last too long.

Silently, she got up and walked up the stairs, dragging her feet.

Upstairs, all the girls were getting ready to go out.

"Where are you going?" Mei asked. She directed her question towards Skye as she stared up at the older girl.

"We, you too, are going to get some warmer winter clothing," Bobbi answered as she threw Mei's sweater over at her. She'd left her coat at the playground, not realizing it would be so cold.

Mei sighed and followed them out into the snow. It was also windy, which didn't help at the snow and cold air was blown into their faces.

May got in the driver's seat. They had two cars here, a van that could fit all of them, and a car. Of course they took the van.

Mei sat in the very back since she didn't want to be squished between people. She wondered if she could get away with laying down across the seats… she tried.

Slowly she undid her seat belt as moved down till she was laying. She'd thought she had gotten away with it when she was fully laying, but she apparently hadn't.

"Violet, sit up," May said from the front. Of course, they had already started this. Outside of the house they called each other by the names assigned to them. Mei hated it.

Mei sat back up and tapped her fingers on her legs. She hadn't brought her ipod, a lack in judgement.

"Can I bring my ipod to school tomorrow?" Mei asked as she leaned forward so she was resting on the seats in front of her.

"No," May said.

"Why not?" Mei asked. Her chin was propped up on the back of the seat. She knew she probably looked like an idiot, but she didn't know who would care enough to fix it.

"Because someone may look at it," May said. From her seat, Mei knew she was trying the woman's patients.

"But I need music. Without music I will fall into an oblivion that I can never be brought out of. It is dark, I've almost slipped there before,"

Mei almost felt like laughing at the look Skye was giving her.

"I will buy you one at the mall," May said. Mei smirked as she leaned back in the seat. Her work was done.

* * *

The mall was huge and Mei was silently wondering how she wouldn't get lost. She was getting tired of trying to keep up with everyone. So far they had just walked in and looked around. Suddenly May turned around to look at them.

"I don't want to be dragged around everywhere you go. So, we will meet at the food court in three hours," she said. Mei shrugged and took the money offered to her and turned around to walk off and go buy her own stuff.

She hated going into other stores. Ones that she didn't know, so she went to ones she did know. In bench, she got an ice blue jacket, a pink sweater that was really soft inside, a pink snowbean dress and a pink knit hat.

She also went into gap and got a black dress with blue roses on it, and ripped jeans.

Finally, after getting winter boots, uggs, converse, gym clothes, leggings, an onesie, some neff beanies, toms, notebooks, a backpack, a tighter dress, heels, and some more sweaters, Mei made her way to the food court.

She noticed that she was the only one there beside May, she was only ten minutes early but felt awkward.

She slowly walked over to the table, and when she was there sat down. May didn't say anything to her as she was on her phone.

"The other girls said they'd be a bit," May finally said. Mei nodded and looked down at her hands. "Come on, like look around,"

Mei was shocked but didn't say anything as she grabbed her bags and followed the woman with the same name.

They walked to the electronics store and walked in. There were lots of people, and Mei considering staying close to May but didn't. She walked over to the display of Ipods and sighed. She really wanted one.

She wasn't saying hers was bad… it just wasn't touch screen.

"Which one is the best one?" she heard May's cool voice say somewhere behind her. She looked around until she saw May and a man that obviously worked there walking over to her.

"I would say 64 gig is your best bet," the man said. "What colour do you like?" he turned to ask Mei.

"Uhh… pink?" Mei asked. He nodded and went to grab something. Mei turned to May. "Wait, I'm actually getting one?" she asked.

May nodded but didn't say anything as the man walked over with it. Mei smiled as he handed her the box and they went up to the front. "Do you know how to set it up, kid?"

"Yeah," Mei said with a smile.

"You look just like your mom, you know that?" he said. Mei felt weird being told that, but shrugged it off. She could tell from the way May's hand was resting on her shoulder that she wasn't comfortable with that. They weren't related so it bugged her, like it should.

"Thanks," Mei said lamely. He nodded, and after May paid the two walked out of the store. Mei eyed bath and body works but didn't say anything as the two of them walked back to the food court where the others were waiting.

* * *

The car ride back was the adults talking about what they had bought while Mei held her new ipod box in her hands.

Just before the food court, May had gotten Mei a case for the ipod so it wouldn't get broken. Mei couldn't wait to put it on it, it was a panda.

Getting back they saw that the car was gone, meaning the boys had gone out to get some stuff too. All of them got out of the van and grabbed their own things. Mei refused to take two trips so she was holding everything she got.

Skye laughed and shook her head at the girl as they made their way inside.

"Take trips down the stairs, Mei," May warned as she helped the girl put bags on the ground so she could take off her coat. Mei rolled her eyes but did what May told her to do. Really she didn't want to fall before she had to go to school. That would suck.

Walking into the room that was 'hers' was weird. She knew it was hers, it was supposed to be anyways, but it didn't feel like it. She felt like she was invading some other person's space. It felt wrong.

She sighed and put her things away before pulling out her old laptop and placing it on the desk and plugging her new ipod into it. She wasn't ready for this, for her new ipod to become fully her own.

It was a magical feeling when she finally had it set up. Of course, the backgrounds were default but she could fix that easily.

She knew she needed to make it something that would look like she had just come from a different school, so after searching through her facebook she got a picture of herself and her old friend.

Mei looked at the clock and saw it would almost be a normal time to eat dinner (but with this group, they could end up eating at midnight) so she went upstairs to see what everyone was doing.

* * *

She saw a neighbour sitting in the living room with May and Coulson, they were all talking and May was… smiling.

This was a shock for the young girl since the adult never usually smiled, well that she saw.

"Is this your daughter," the lady nodded towards Mei. She realized that she hadn't been hiding as well as she thought she had been.

"Yes, our youngest, Violet," Coulson said as he beckoned her forward. Mei smiled awkwardly as she walked forward and looked down towards the ground. Just as she would when her father before tried to introduce her to someone new.

Mei sat down next to May and when May gave her a side hug she was ultra-scared. Either May was a brilliant actor, or was mad at her and trying to kill her with kindness. Mei hoped it was the first option.

"How old are you, Violet?" the lady said as she turned to her.

"Thirteen," Mei said. That was the truth, she could work with truth. Make the lies as close to the truth as you can and maybe one day they'll turn into it.

"My daughter is your age… she's already started discovering boys…" Mei wrinkled her nose at the mention of boys. Who needed to date these days? "Not into them yet? Don't worry, it will come soon,"

Mei highly doubted that but that lady didn't need to know that.

"Why don't you go tell Michelle to start dinner?" Coulson said. Mei nodded and stood up, walking out. She didn't know who Michelle was but at least now she got out of that conversation.

"Oh no, it's okay I'll go I need to start dinner anyways," The lady said as she stood up and May walked her towards the door. "Have a nice day, and I'll see you around," she said with a smile.

May nodded and smiled at her before closing the door.

Mei didn't say anything as she watched Coulson and May. She was cold from the gust of air that came through the door though, and rubbed her bare arms.

"Who's Michelle?" Mei finally asked.

"Bobbi," Coulson replied as he ruffled Mei's hair. The young girl swatted his hands away. He was not allowed to mess up her hair, she liked it the way it was and was not okay with it being messy.

Nodding, Mei glanced up at May to make sure she had stopped being weird. Thankfully she had.

Mei walked back to the living room and curled up on the couch that was closest to the fireplace. She was starting to download apps when May walked into the room with a book and sat on the other chair.

Soon enough Skye entered the room too.

"Why isn't the fireplace on?" she asked.

"Be my guest," May said without looking up. Skye rolled her eyes as she walked over and sat down next to Mei.

"Show me your new ipod," Skye said with a smile at the girl. A small smile placed itself on the girls face as she locked the ipod then turned it on so she could give Skye the full tour of it.

"This is the lock screen," she said as she turned it on to show her.

"Who's the girl your with?" Skye asked as she looked down at the glowing picture.

"My friend Amanda. She was from New Orleans but moved to New York when we were eleven," Mei explained as she slid her finger right, unlocking it. The home screen background was still the same.

The two girls went through the different apps that Mei had gotten so far and Skye put in her cellphone number and some other numbers that Mei might need.

They did that until dinner, which was spaghetti. It was a simple meal that was easy to prepare for their first night.

The adults discussed what they had bought, with Fitz sometimes struggling with his sentences.

After dinner, Mei went back down to her room and curled up in a ball on her bed.

She grabbed the file off of the floor where she had dropped it when 'moving in' and pulled out another sheet.

_Personality: shy but loves to act and draw. Mommy's girl. Quiet._

Mei knew she could work with almost all of that. Quiet? Got that covered. Draw? She liked to draw. Act? She was acting right now, wasn't she? Shy? Well that was easy. She put the file down again and pulled up a blanket.

The blanket covered her head as she went onto YouTube and started to look up videos to entertain herself with.

Mei fell asleep in the middle of a video about a drunk makeup challenge. Her ipod still playing but plugged into a wall charging at the same time.

Mei wouldn't remember her dream in the morning, but she was dreaming about her dad and her time before the accident.


	6. First day of School

Mei stood beside the car in her jacket and boots looking unimpressed.

This idea of going back to school was not fun in her mind. Nope, not at all.

"You need to get in the back," Skye said as she stood beside her. Mei glared at the older girl and kept where she stood.

"I sat there yesterday," she said. Skye rolled her eyes. Mei knew it was childish. She was supposed to be the youngest child though, might as well act like it.

"Why are you two taking so long?" May asked as she walked over with the keys so she could warm up the car.

"Violet is being childish," Skye complained.

"Well I sat in the back yesterday," Mei could tell after May sighed that she was weighing her options.

Both girls stared at the woman.

"Summer, in the back," May said. Mei smiled at her. "Sophie, you're in the front," she continued. Jemma, who was walking down the side, smiled as she got in the front. Fitz and Mei got into the middle.

The five sat in silence for the drive and Mei wondered if the school was close enough that she could just walk one of these days.

Not even at the school on her first day and she was hoping it was closed.

When they got there everyone got out of the car and the siblings started off to their classes. May had printed out their schedules yesterday, so they just had to figure out where everything was.

Mei walked into the school and down the hallway. Looking at the locker numbers through the groups of people. This school was huge and she felt as though it was a bad plan coming here not knowing where anything was. Of course, even if it was a bad plan she was there and nothing could fix that.

Finally, she found her locker. 91. Quietly she walked over to the locker and opened it, seeing it was empty.

Quietly, Mei placed her old school things inside it and looked down at her schedule. She found it odd that she only got four classes a day instead of six or eight.

She walked to her first class, English, following the map that was given to her. When she got to the class she saw that teaching was a middle aged lady with her greying brown hair in a ponytail.

According to her schedule this was Mrs. Folly.

"Hi, I'm the new student, Violet," Mei said. Mrs. Folly nodded and looked through her list before telling Mei to sit wherever she'd like.

Mei sat in the back by the window, and stayed sitting there as all the students walked in. Some of them gave her odd looks, other ignored her completely.

When the bell finally rang, Mrs. Folly looked over her students.

"I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, but it is now time to get back to work, we also have a new student. This is Violet Miller," she said as she motioned towards where Mei was sitting.

Mei did a slight wave before looking down at her notebook. She picked up her pink pen and started to doodle in the margins as the class started to silent read. She didn't have a book yet.

Mei was bored, usually this wouldn't both her but she felt people staring at her back.

Pulling her ipod out of her hoodie pocket for a second, she looked down at the screen to see that she had no notifications. Wonderful.

"I want you all to think about what book you'd like to do for the book study," Mrs. Folly said as she motioned for all the books to go away. Mei sat up straighter as she listened. "I want you all to choose a book you'd like, something that you'll be interested in,"

As Mei wondered, she noticed some of the students whispering to each other. "For now, I want you all to work on your assignments,"

All of the students started to get up to leave the room when Mrs. Folly motioned for Mei to come to her desk. Mei stood and walked over with her notebook and purse in hand.

"Violet, Friday we started a new project. You need to write on yourself. This is not an essay, but it is also not a paragraph. You need to write on who you are, okay?"

Mei nodded but was wondering how she'd do that since this was a lie. Then she remembered, the best lies are as close to the truth as possible.

* * *

Her next class was photography. Apparently they had just started this semester, and somehow Mei had gotten an easy one.

She sat down in one of the corner seats of the computer lab as the teacher walked in. Apparently this was second photo, therefore the students who took this one had previous photography background.

"Hey, can we sit here?" a girl with blonde hair asked.

"Of course," Mei said with a smile. The blonde smiled at her before sitting down with two other girls. Each computer row had four computers, it was nice.

Mei wondered if these girls were going to end up as her friends, which would be nice. To have friends.

"I am assuming you all remember the basics that I've taught you in years or semesters previous?" Mei looked up at the sudden intrusion of a voice in her mind to see the teacher. "I want to do snow pictures for our first unit, just to get you all used to the camera's again. Then I'd like to go to fashion," Mei wondered if this first class was last semester.

She then realized she didn't have a camera, and even though the teacher would obviously lend her one she didn't want to borrow one. She wanted her own.

Mei was about to pout about this when they all started to leave. She had no clue what to do, and guessed it was obvious because the blonde turned to her.

"Want to come with us?" she asked.

"Yes please," Mei smiled at her as she walked out with the group of girls.

As they made their way outside, Mei was glad she hadn't changed shoes. There was lots of snow for Canadian January and she supposed more was to come.

Mei was cold but didn't tell anyone as they started to snap photos.

She walked out into the snow, feeling awkward and not wanting to ask for the camera. There was a snowball that was already made so she stood on that and saw that it was easy to stand on and only a little icy. She had her arms crossed and was looking down, when she heard the camera click.

She looked up to see the blonde had snapped a picture of her.

"This looks so cool," the blonde said. "Want to see, Violet?" she asked.

Mei nodded, not knowing how this person knew her fake name, and jumped down. She walked over and the girl passed her the camera.

On it was a good picture of her looking down, balanced on the snowball with her arms crossed.

"I like it," Mei said. The blonde smiled.

"You take some pictures,"

Mei realized, she had somehow made a friend. Even if she didn't know this girls name.


	7. A hitch in the Plan

The concept of school was to get good grades. It doesn't matter what you learn. They say they want you to understand, to learn the material that is in your books, but in reality you're just gonna have to memorize it. You'll forget it all in the end because it doesn't matter, nobody really cares. You just need the grade.

Mei had learnt that years ago. Who cares if she understand, it only matters if she can repeat the information in front of her.

She had two last classes of the day, physical education and math. Mei was aware she was bad at math, and had tried to convince Coulson not to put her in it. It didn't work.

In Physical Education, her class was at the same time of Skye and Jemma. Different teachers though, May was their teacher, someone named Mr. Filch was theirs.

Mr. Filch was a large, round Italian man who looked through large glasses and beady eyes. He scared Mei a bit, but she didn't let it show.

At lunch she'd met a boy, Gus, who she was now standing with. She found it easier to be around him because he didn't talk much either. Apparently he had been in her English class but she hadn't seen him.

In her last class, Math, she was handed a textbook and work sheets. Their teacher apparently didn't teach, just showed them their work and let them teach themselves. Then he left, Mei smelt weed, so she presumed he was off to do that.

After school she met everyone at the car and they made their way home.

This repeated itself all week, the act of going to school and coming back, acting as though they were one big happy family.

In reality though, they were sort of a big family, but not hugely happy.

"It's easy!" Jemma said as she tried to explain the types of numbers to Mei. "There are natural numbers, which start at one, they go  _one, two, three, four, five, six,_ etc. Then there are whole numbers which is  _zero, one, two, three, four, five, six_ , etc. Then-"

"Wait, why are there whole numbers? Aren't they just natural?" Mei asked as she stared at the bio-chemist.

"No, they're different. They have the zero-"

" _But why_ do they have the zero in it. Why can't natural and whole just be the same thing there is no point in naming the same thing different things,"

"They aren't the same Mei, there is a zero,"

"Why is there a zero?"

"I don't know!"

Mei sighed and gathered her stuff. "Math is useless. I give up," without another word the young girl headed back down to the basement.

The basement lounge was set up, but was only used by Mei. There was a small TV and some board games. Mei usually just played a game by herself or read. Sometimes she watch TV, but not much.

Today she pulled out her dominoes and started to line them up correctly again so they'd all fall.

"You know, you never explained to me the point of them falling," Skye said as she made her way down the stairs with laundry. That was the problem, the laundry was in the basement.

"Their all the bodies that fall. There the lines of people that are simply dying. The ones that are still standing while these fall are the ones that are simply waiting for death, like we are. The whole purpose of our lives is to die," Mei stated as she pushed down the tiles closest to her and let them all fall. One stayed up though. "When one stays up, it has believed it has cheated death. Nobody has though, and nobody will,"

Skye stared at the younger girl, trying to process what she had just heard.

"The whole point of dominoes falling is death?" Skye asked. Mei nodded. "That is the most messed up, sadistic thing I've ever heard," she stared at the girl wondering if she had anything to say for herself.

Mei didn't speak for a while, just stared at the dominoes that littered the small tables top.

"I suppose. It is true though,"

Skye just shook her head and walked into the laundry room. Mei sighed and pushed her things away before going into her room, leaving the mess of dominoes to sit on the table. She didn't say anything as she opened her laptop.

Rap music in another language started playing as the lid was lifted. Mei sighed as she logged into her account and waited for the computer to load. She had the laptop for a long time, it was either windows seven, or windows XP. She wasn't completely sure.

She logged into her facebook account,  _mzsung_ she wasn't sure what was going to happen but noticed she had a message.

Clicking on it, she saw it was some guy from her old school.

 _Hope you are gone from this earth. Heard you left and just wanted to send some last words: you don't deserve air_.

Mei sighed. This happened a lot, she had gotten in a fight with one of her old friends before moving. The friend extremely popular, Mei was not.

Mei logged out again as fast as she logged in (which wasn't fast since she hadn't been able to figure out her password).

* * *

Her next day wasn't any better, it was Monday and Mei had brought a bottle of coke zero to school and was opening it when it sprayed all over her. After being laughed at by her math class, and going to change during break, she had gone to photo for the teacher to take away her ipod when she was messaging Skye to ask if her coke had basically exploded too.

In PE the teacher made her run around the track more than she thought she was physically capable of. Then when she fell he got angry with her! Then during four corner soccer she got hit in the face and got a nose bleed, which she also got in trouble for.

When walking down the hallway after school, the zipper of her sweater had gone too low and people could see her tank top, which got her called a slut by some boy.

She had also noticed her vision was slightly blurry.

After school Mei got out to the car and got scolded for being late by May before they were off. She had to sit in the very back.

"I just want to get home. I forgot how much I hated high school," Skye said as she stared out the window of the front.

When they got back, Coulson gave her a weird look since he knew that wasn't the outfit she had left in. Mei glared at him before running downstairs and curling up on her bed.

Dinner wasn't better, after refusing to eat the steak (Mei decided to turn vegetarian) and getting the scary voice from May, she went to bed and fell asleep right away.

Mei decided that school was too hard, but still went the next day.

She was done though when walking down the hallway (late) to her class, and some boy went up behind her, undid her bra (because the back of her shirt was lace) and then ran off laughing.

Mei was done, she just sat on the ground in the middle of the hallway with her legs pulled up to her chest, face pressed into them, for the whole period.

At lunch, Mei walked home after messaging Skye saying she was leaving then putting her device on air plane mode so she wouldn't get any messages.

Mei walked home in her hoodie and news print leggings, and when she got home curled up in her blanket and turned on Netflix.

She put on Bones and stared at the television mindlessly. She never felt so defeated. Why was high school so hard? She didn't remember it so hard.

"Mei!" she heard someone yell as the front door slammed shut. Mei tried to tune out the voice as the person walked downstairs. "Mei why in the world are you home?" the voice was angry. She looked up to see Coulson. Skye probably messaged him. "Not to mention I messaged you at least twelve times, you could have answered!"

Mei had never seen Coulson angry before. May yes, Coulson no. Mei didn't say anything as she glanced at him then back at the TV.

"I am not going back. I want to be home schooled, or not schooled. I wasn't schooled at the playground," Mei stated. The television suddenly went black. "I was watching that!" she said in a huff as she glared up at the man.

"Mei… whatever your full name is, you cannot just leave the school because you're having a bad day!" Coulson yelled. "Now I had to leave my job-"

"That  _isn't even_  your job! You don't  _have_ a normal job! You're a director of an international agency that shouldn't even exist," Mei said with a roll of her eyes before she stood up. "I'm going to my room,"

Coulson seemed to be thinking of a response. "No you aren't young lady!" he said in a strained voice. Upstairs the door opened and shut, Mei got a glance at May as she made her way down the stairs.

"You aren't my father, you can't just tell me what to do. I don't even work for you, I don't even know why I am here," Mei said before turning around and going back into her bedroom.

Mei knew deep down that she was being unreasonable and dramatic. That was the thing though, in a teenagers mind all these things were a huge problem. Everything is magnified, and so there was a feeling magnified inside of her that she couldn't tell what it was.

Guilt? Sadness? Loss? Mei felt an emptiness inside of her that she didn't know what to fill it with. So she curled up on her bed under a blanket, thinking of her old Agent, and wondering what would have happened if he was still alive.


	8. Skye's bad day

Usually people didn't want to be seen in the library, so Mei found it easiest to stay in there. Of course, that didn't help when she went to PE class and had to be under the beady eyes of Mr. Filch.

"Today we will be combining with Mrs. Miller's class. We're doing the beep test. For those of you who hasn't done it before, every time there is a beep you run to the other side of the gym. Miss two beeps in a row and you're out,"

All the girls were first, and Mei lined up alongside the blonde from photo and an overweight girl.

As the first beep sounded Mei ran easily.

When it came to the tenth, the girl beside her was red faced and seemed in pain. "You can do it," Mei whispered to her. She didn't want this girl to be the first out; that would be embarrassing. The first out turned out to be some girl that had a tattoo in the older class.

At one point, Mei wondered what it was like to have to do these regularly. For someone that had been out of school for over a month or more, it was weird to be doing one. Especially because her old school never did.

Finally Mei was one of the last two to go out. The two went off at the same time, her and one of the girls in the older class. Her lungs felt like they were going to explode, and there was a burning in her throat.

She sat down against the wall and was glad for its coolness against her heated skin. She looked to her right to see Skye looking at her, and looked to see that May had even looked at her for a second. Mei knew she wasn't about to die, but apparently they thought she was.

Gus was the first off for her class, and came and sat down next to her.

"Those things are torture," he said.

"Are you okay…?" Mei asked as he seemed to be having troubles breathing. By then she had mostly gotten hers under control, but he seemed much worse.

"Yeah, it's fine," he said.

Gus was a chubby boy who found fun in playing videogames and watching lets plays on YouTube.

The two watched the other students.

"Do you have money for lunch today? I forgot mine at home," he said suddenly.

"Yeah, do you want it?" Mei asked. After all this running, she knew she couldn't stomach food.

"If that is okay with you?"

"My mom works here, if I need money I can just ask her. It's totally fine," Gus smiled at her as the last boy finished.

Everyone stood up, they knew that the rest of the class they'd all be doing an activity together.

The boy that had been rude to her was in the older grade, Mei realized when he looked at her from where he stood with Skye's class.

"We'll be playing dodge ball, grade eights against grade 12," Mr. Filch said as he and May stood beside each other. Some of the more-into-PE students started getting the balls set up, Gus and Mei stood at the back against the wall.

Gus seemed nervous and was sweating buckets already.

"Calm down, its fine," Mei said to him quietly. He nodded but didn't seem convinced.

When the whistle was blown they all started to get the balls over to their side. Mei grabbed one of them but didn't move from her spot. She knew that nobody would try and attack her if she stayed still.

She was correct too, till she tried to hit the boy that had called her a slut. That was when everything went downhill.

Mei had missed hitting him, but she didn't miss the look in his eyes when he realized what she had tried to do. She swallowed before trying to dash for a different one, but was too late when she got hit in the face.

Nobody had noticed, but she went off to the side where Gus was sitting. The guy had a smirk on his face and Mei sat down next to Gus with her hand on her face.

"He hit you on the face!" Gus said.

"In the face," Mei corrected as she pulled her hand away to see that her nose was bleeding pretty hard. "I need to get him back Gus,"

"If someone catches the next ball, you go in instead of me," Gus offered. Mei nodded and just then someone caught one. Mei wiped her nose on the back of her hand, leaving a line of red, as she stood up and went back onto the court.

Nobody had noticed yet, or if they did didn't say anything. She picked up a ball, and when the boy was not paying attention she threw it so it hit him in the shoulder, hard.

He sore loudly. "LANGUAGE GREY," Filch yelled.

"I'm going to the washroom," Mei called as she walked off the court and into the girls change room. The bell was due to ring soon, so slowly students started to trickle into the room.

Mei changed back into her white tank top and lace black top, and her Cheshire cat leggings. Then she walked over to the sink and grabbed paper towel to try and stop her bleeding nose.

"Good throw," Skye said as she walked over to the mirror to brush her hair.

"Thanks," Mei said as she continued to hold the paper to her face.

"Violet, what are you doing?" Skye asked as she looked at her. Mei didn't say anything, but Skye noticed when she pulled the paper towel away from her face. "Shit, what happened?"

"The guy I hit threw a ball at my face," Mei said dryly.

"Let's go tell mom." Skye said. Mei shook her head but Skye wouldn't hear it, and instructed her to grab her things.

Mei grabbed her bag, and took the money out of it.

Gus was waiting outside the bathroom for her, and she handed it to him before walking with Skye to the office that May was using.

The two walked in and May took a second to look up, she was trying to be realistic. Skye closed the door so nobody could hear them.

"What did you do?" May asked as she motioned for Mei to sit down across from her on the spare chair. Mei sat down.

"I got hit in the face," Mei stated as May started to check to make sure her nose wasn't broken.

"It isn't broken, but it is bleeding pretty well," May said before getting out a first aid kit and gently pinching Mei's nose.

The three were in silence for a few minutes. "You can go Summer," she said. Skye nodded to her S.O. before leaving the room.

Mei hoped that it would stop bleeding soon so she could leave. She and Gus had made another friend, a girl names Angelica, and they had plans for lunch.

"Want to talk about yesterday?" May asked as she pulled her hand away to make sure the bleeding had stopped. It had, but Mei needed to wipe the blood off of her face.

"Not particularly," Mei said without saying more than that. May rolled her eyes as she grabbed a sterol wipe and gently got all the blood off of Mei's face and threw it out.

"You have to at some point, we're not avoiding the subject forever," May stated. "Done," she added. "Try not to get another injury today," Mei nodded before grabbing her things and leaving the room.

She quickly went to her locker then to the upstairs windows where Gus and Angelica were waiting for her.

"Sorry, my mom had to fix my nose," Mei said as she hopped up onto the clean part of the ledge. They nodded that it was fine and then went back to their card game on the floor.

Nobody came to this end of the school usually since it was old and mostly dirty but the three of them didn't care, it was fine to them.

Mei sighed as she watched Gus wolf down a burrito.

"Violet, you wanna come over after school?" Gus asked as he swallowed. "I can teach you how to play Mario,"

"I just have to ask," Mei said as she pulled out her iPod and messaged May. About a minute later she had a response. "It's all good," she said with a smile.

* * *

Gus' house was small, but Mei thought that it was homey.

The inside was moderately clean. "My parents are at work," Gus had explained to Mei as they walked into the kitchen. Gus had said that they'd get a snack because Mei hadn't eaten lunch and he was hungry. She didn't want to tell him she wasn't even hungry.

Gus made them popcorn, extra buttery. Mei thought it looked horrible, it was soaked in grease! She didn't say anything about it though and ate some of it.

When they got into his room, Mei wondered if a bomb had gone off and if FitzSimmons had something to fix this type of destruction. The room was  _horribly_  messy. So bad that she didn't know how she could walk.

Gus swept clothing off of two chairs (onto the practically non-existent floor) and they sat down in front of his television and he turned on the Xbox.

"I also have one of the connects, but there isn't a lot of room to move around for it…" he trailed off.

"Its fine," Mei said with a small smile as they started the game.

She wasn't that bad, but it was still confusing. Mei never played video games, she had watched Mack and Fitz play some at the playground but that was all.

The two played the game in silence till they heard someone walk in the front door.

" _I'M HOME_!" she heard someone call.

" _HI MOM!_ " Gus called back. She wondered if this was how they talked in this house. At her house, that would not go over well. " _VIOLET IS HERE_ "

" _OH HI VIOLET_ " his mom yelled.

"Hi Mrs. Young!" Mei called but not as loud as Gus. She heard some heavy footsteps come closer till the door opened and a face appeared in it.

She looked like a female version of Gus except with piercing blue, bloodshot eyes.

"I'm sorry for my son's mess, Violet," she said with a large, yellow toothed grin. Mei smiled back hesitantly. "Will you be staying for dinner?"

"Its fine, and no, sorry. My parents want me back for dinner," Mei said. Mrs. Young nodded in understanding.

"Well, it is five now so I'll give you a ride home. Come along dear, come on Gus," the two teens made their way out of the maze of a room and got on their outdoors things.

They got into the back of the old ford car and it started with a loud roar. Mei wondered if this was safe, with all the snow on the road and most likely black ice under it.

She didn't say anything though as they drove down the road. Once they got to the area where Mei's house was, Mei directed them to it.

"Thank you for driving me home," Mei said kindly.

"You're welcome dear, come over anytime," Mrs. Young said.

"Thanks,"

"Bye Mei, see you tomorrow!" Gus said with a huge smile.

"Bye, Gus," Mei said as she made her way up the sidewalk.

When she got inside she heard people arguing and sighed. Maybe the mess was worth not being in a house full of adults.

She took off her boots and coat before walking into the living room where it seemed that May, Coulson and Skye were having a standoff.

Mei gave them an odd look as she climbed over the couch arm (not to get in their way) and sat next to Bobbi.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"Skye skipped and thinks that May and Coulson are making too big of a deal out of it. They grounded her- why do you smell like cigars?" Bobbi asked as she glanced at Mei out of the corner of her eyes.

"Gus' mom is like a chain-smoker," Mei explained as she watched the confrontation.

"This isn't fair, I'm an adult!" Skye said in an almost yelling tone.

"Then start acting like one," May said in her monotone voice.

"You can't ground me!"

"We already did," Coulson added.

"You aren't even my parents! I hate you!" Skye said as she stormed out of the room and out the back door, leaving the room shaking slightly.

Mei wondered if she could sneak out of the room but decided against it. She heard the front door bell ring and Hunter got up to answer it. Mei sat there awkwardly and wondered what was going to happen now.

Four boxes of pizza were brought in and everyone went and got some. Mei grabbed one piece and a Caesar salad that was gotten for her and sat down on one of the counter stools.

Everyone else disappeared, probably to their rooms, to avoid any more anger.

* * *

"How mad are they?" Skye asked as Mei handed her some pizza on a paper plate and a red solo cup of coke.

"It's just a cover, Skye," Mei said as she sat on the chair beside Skye. They were on the porch, and the white Christmas lights were on illuminating the world around them. Mei looked over at Skye and saw that she'd been crying.

"It felt so real though," Skye almost whispered. She set the pizza and drink on the table beside her. She wasn't that hungry, and Mei understood where she was coming from with that. "I think of them like my parents, you know? And they were so mad… I feel like I disappointed my parents,"

Mei sighed. She knew how that felt, feeling like you disappointed someone that was like your parent. Neither girl said anything as they stared into the back yard. There was a nothingness that hung there in the dark.

"It should have been me…" Skye said with a whisper.

"What should have been?" Mei asked as she looked over at Skye, resting the side of her face on her knees.

"Tripp dying… it should have been me…" a tear trickled down Skye's cheek. Mei was slightly confused, she had never met a  _Tripp_  but had an idea of who he was.

"Is that the guy that died saving you?" she asked. Skye nodded. "How does it feel?" Mei asked as she took something from the therapists you see on television.

"What do you mean?" Skye asked.

"How did it feel to lose him, explain it to me,"

Skye had to think of a response. How did it feel to lose someone so close to her? "It feels like pain. It feels as though I've done the worst thing possible. I think I have a hole in my heart where he used to be. Am I actually feeling something right, or am I wearing my heart on my sleeve?"

Skye broke down into sobs, the sound echoed in the dark. Mei hoped nobody would come see what was happening, there was no way she could explain why she was crying while staying in character. "Sometimes, I can't feel anything. I'm just numb. I feel so guilty, I don't even know if I'm alive anymore… how do I know I'm alive, Mei?"

Mei had to think about this. How did someone who felt so much pain that they felt numb, know they were alive? It was obviously survivors' guilt, but Skye didn't know that.

"Feel the pain inside of yourself?" Mei asked. Skye nodded and she wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her purple shirt. "That's how you know. The pain of human emotion is the only thing letting us know we're alive. Without it, we'd be nothing. Simple bodies with no brain. We wouldn't be living, we'd simply be surviving." Skye let the girls words sink in.

"When does it stop hurting?" She asked.

"I don't know. I don't think Tripp would want you to be hurt though, I think he'd want you to be happy," Mei said as she stood up. "Come inside soon, it isn't good to get too cold,"

The girl walked inside, May and Coulson were cleaning the kitchen when she walked past. Mei turned to them.

"Hey, when Skye comes in give her a hug. She's had a bad day," with that, Mei went back downstairs into her shell.


	9. Eye Doctor

When Mei woke up she showered quickly, and was about to head upstairs when she got an email. She clicked it.

_Eye doctors appointment changed to today at 3:50_

Mei sighed, she had forgotten that she had gotten that changed to the town they were in. Also she forgot that she hadn't told anyone.

She walked upstairs where May was sitting in the kitchen talking quietly to Coulson. She looked pale though, and it was obvious to the teenager that she was sick.

Mei didn't say anything as she got her backpack ready. Unlike everyone else who got theirs ready in their rooms, Mei had a habit of getting hers ready in the kitchen.

After finishing she sat down on one of the stools to play crossy roads.

"Mei, aren't you having breakfast?" she heard Coulson ask. Mei shook her head as she got hit by a bus on the game. "It's healthy to have breakfast"

"I don't like breakfast," Mei stated.

The two adults seemed to have let it go as they went back to their conversation. "You aren't going," Coulson said as he reached over and picked up his cellphone and dialed a number.

"Who isn't going where?" Mei asked as she looked up at the two.

"May isn't going to the school today. She is sick," Coulson said. May, who had moved to be standing beside Mei so she could grab something off the other side of the counter, was shocked when Mei put her extremely cold hand on her forehead.

"You aren't allowed to go," Mei stated. May rolled her eyes. "I am serious. You need to go to bed and sleep,"

May made a little noise of amusement but grabbed her tea and headed for the livingroom.

"May, that's the wrong way!" Mei called after the woman.

"No use, at least she isn't going to work," Coulson said with a shrug as he got one of the small containers of yogurt out of the fridge. Mei sighed and went into the living room. She'd be told when they were going to school.

She sat down on the couch, and pulled out of her ipod but was distracted when it was suddenly taken out of her hands and she was given the small container of yogurt.

"Eat first, play later," Coulson said.

"I hate yogurt," Mei mumbled under her breath before taking the spoon and putting some in her mouth. After she finished the container she took her iPod back.

"Come on Mei," said Skye as she appeared in the room. Mei hopped up and walked over to the kitchen to grab her things then put on her boots and coat.

* * *

Mei was running around the gym with her class. Today, during second she realized she didn't feel well. And now doing this running made her feel worse. So, she stopped to walk for a bit.

That was the wrong this to do though as Filch saw her walking. "Miller! Think you're too good to run? Get running or you'll be doing double!" Mei sighed and soon enough was running again.

She couldn't handle it though, the pain in her throat and the fact that her lungs were wanting oxygen. So, she stopped again. It wasn't her fault she couldn't run for a whole class.

" _Miller!_  That's it! Follow me!" he yelled. Mei sighed but followed slowly behind him. She wished that someone would be there to take her last will and testament.

She dragged her feet as the doors were opened and they went outside into the cold.

"Five laps around the school. I'm going to stand here and count," He said. Mei glared at him but did as he said, very slowly. She felt like she was going to pass out, but did all five laps, she wasn't going to give in.

* * *

After school the exhausted teenager caught the city bus downtown to her appointment. After the appointment she felt as though there was a hole in her backpack. She had to get glasses.

Mei had never had glasses before, but apparently she needed them. They had the frames she liked and the lenses she needed there, so she had them in her backpack in a pink case that looked like a jellybean.

She took another city bus to her home area and walked the rest of the way.

"Mei! Where were you!?" Skye asked as the door opened.

"I went downtown…" Mei trailed off. "Are May and Coulson mad?"

"They aren't home, they weren't here when we got here," Skye said. "Don't do that again, alright?"

Mei nodded and headed downstairs.

* * *

Mei woke up at three and felt sick, so she went to the bathroom to get a drink of water. Except, when she went to take a drink, she threw up.

"No, no, no," Mei said to herself. She hated being sick, it was  _not_  her thing.

She quickly cleaned up the best she could, but she forgot that she was in a house with people who were basically ninja's.

"Mei, what are you doing?" she heard through the door.

"Drink," Mei said as she ran the water for a second, paused, then picked up and put down the bathroom cup. She walked out of the bathroom and smiled nervously before trying to hurry back to her room, only to be pulled back by Coulson.

Quietly he put the back of his hand to her forehead and sighed. "You're sick too, you won't be going to school either," Coulson said before walking back to his room.

Mei didn't sleep for the rest of the time, just watched Netflix. She wasn't in the mood for sleep, but was almost when the door opened and May walked in around eight.

"You should be asleep," May said as she walked further into the room and placed two pills and a glass of water on the table before Mei's bed.

"I don't want to," Mei said with a yawn. May rolled her eyes before placing her hand on the teenager's forehead.

May walked out of the room silently after that, and two hours later Mei walked out of the room wondering where she had gone.

She saw the bedroom door opened a crack and peaked inside to see May laying on her side on the bed, asleep.

Mei walked in and laid down on the other side. That was, till there was a knock on the door upstairs.

"May," Mei whispered with no response. "Mom," she tried again, that made May stir. "May, there is someone at the door,"

May stood up and walked out of the room with Mei following behind her quietly. When they got there, and the door was opened, Mei was surprised at who was there.

"Maria!"


	10. Surprise Vists

"Maria? What are you doing here…" May started in confusion before the young Mei ran from behind her and hugged Maria.

"Maria!" Mei said again in excitement.

"… and how do you know Mei?" she finished.

"I often went to see her and the agent who took care of her," Maria said as she hugged the teenager back and closed the door behind herself.

Mei pulled Maria to the living room and then May walked slowly behind, still feeling drained because of the flu and wondering how Mei had all of this energy all of the sudden.

Maria was amused by the young girl and sat down on the couch, with May sitting on a chair and Mei sitting beside her.

"So, what are you doing here, Maria?" May asked.

"Well, Mel, I am here because I got a message from Coulson telling me that this mission was taking longer than he wanted. He wants me to help end it," she explained. May nodded, excepting the explanation as she and Maria started to talk about how things were going in New York.

* * *

"Is that really all you're here for?" Mei asked that night as she was getting her things from her room. Maria was sleeping in her room and she was sleeping on the carpet in the basements TV room.

"What do you mean?" asked Maria as she looked at the girl who was staring at her with doe eyes.

"I mean, just to help with the mission,"

"No, I wanted to give this to you," Maria said as she pulled out a folder, showed it to Mei, and then placed it on the bed table. "It's about your file. You can read it when you want to,"

Mei nodded as she stared at the file, then turned around and left the room. Maria knew the girl wouldn't be ready yet, but it was there for her for when she was.

* * *

"I'm better can I go to school today, please?" Mei asked. She was already dressed and even had eaten breakfast to show them that she was okay.

"Mei, I don't know," Coulson said.

"Please? Write me a note so I don't have to do PE and I'll be fine. I have a test today!" she lied. Coulson relented and quickly jotted down a note and gave it to the girl before she smiled, grabbed it, and ran off to get in the car with everyone else.

Coulson and May shared a look as she grabbed her thermos that was filled with tea and made her way out to the car and got in the driver's seat.

* * *

Mei and Gus sat side by side at lunch. They had somehow gotten onto the roof of the building (through an unclosed door) and were now sitting with their legs dangling off the side, pulling their sweaters closer around them.

"I might be moving soon," Mei said.

"What why?" Gus asked with a frown on his face.

Mei knew she shouldn't have said that. She didn't know if they even were leaving or not, but she couldn't just get up and leave Gus.

"My dad got a better job in Toronto, wants to go there," she explained. Gus nodded but still looked sat. Mei sighed and swung her legs a bit. "You know, you still have Angelica. You're a great guy Gus, lots of people want to be your friend,"

Gus sighed and seemed to be trying to figure out what he was going to say. Mei didn't know how to help him figure it out, so she didn't. She stayed silent and watched as he tried to figure out his words.

"Violet, I know I can have other friends… but I don't want other friends," Gus said in a disappointed tone. "Who else will eat triple butter popcorn with me?"

"I don't know," Mei said in a fake happy voice. She didn't even want to eat triple butter popcorn. "But you will find someone Gus. Maybe even your special someone,"

She hated saying the R word. It was so stupid.

"I don't want someone else though, Violet. I really like you," Mei all of the sudden had a feeling what this like was. "I really,  _really_ like you,"

There was an awkward silence in the air, which stopped being silent when Mei sneezed.

"Gus," she sniffled. "I'm sorry. You're a terrific friend but I don't want a relationship. Especially a long-distance relationship,"

Gus sighed but nodded. He had a feeling he was going to be rejected. "I figured so," he said.

The two continued to sit there till the bell rang in which they went inside for PE.

* * *

They had a five block day, meaning PE was after lunch. Mei got out of it, even though Filch wasn't going to let her, May got into the conversation and told her to go to the library.

So, there she was sitting there when the librarian came over and asked what she was doing.

"I'm trying to research things from the Second World War," Mei lied instantly. She had been waiting for this moment, although she had hoped a different member of the team would be there and not her. She wasn't ready for this, not at all. "I heard there was secret organization working for the allies and I was hoping to find out what it was,"

The librarian stared at her, obviously trying to figure out if she was telling the truth. Mei wasn't though, but she was a good liar. Nobody knew it though, she had often lied before she moved with them.

"I have one you may like. It is a secret though, and it is restricted. You'll only be able to look at it here," she said after a minute or two. Mei smiled a pleasant smile and followed her into the back where the restricted books were.

The librarian told Mei were it went, obviously trusting her, the left the area.

The book was old and dusty, the covers were leather with a faded silver ink on them.

 _The SSR_ the books title said. Mei felt satisfied that she had been able to do that, and placed the book in her backpack.

Then she realized something, the library had those sensors there were at stores. They could tell if you were leaving with a book.

So, she walked out and into the historical non-fiction area. The librarian was helping a class in the computer lab and never noticed the girl leave.

Mei opened the emergency exit and fled down those stairs, then out of the building.

That exit wasn't to be used unless it was an emergency. So, the fire alarm went off. Before any classes could come out though, the teenagers quickly sprinted from the school grounds and into the woods behind it. They wouldn't find her there.

This was tricky, she realized, stealing a book. It was also slightly terrifying. What was she to do if they found her? Say it was an accident? Tell the truth? The truth was out of the question.

Mei climbed up one of the trees, wishing she had her coat and her boots. She was just wearing her old pair of converse, and the snow has soaked completely through.

She watched the students leave the school and go outside. The teachers were trying to figure out who pulled the alarm.

Mei watched as they all went inside, obviously going to be yelled at.

After everyone was inside, she left the forest beside the high way further from the school, crossed, and went into the area of houses starting for the house.

She felt her heart pounding and started running. She needed to get inside, give someone the book. She hated the feeling inside of her. Guilt for tricking the librarian, guilt for stealing a book!

She ran in the front door and slammed it closed before leaning with her back against it.

"Hey… what happened?" a frowning Maria asked as she stared at Mei. The girl was sitting on the floor now huffing and puffing, her adrenalin running out.

It took her a few minutes before she could speak. "I stole the book,"


	11. End of Missions, Spoons and Tears

" _I stole the book"_

This was the moment in which Mei never thought would happen. She'd never imagined herself a Book Thief, but it seemed as though she was being a character from her favourite novel. Except without the holocaust and death.

Well, there might be death she just isn't aware of it.

"You stole a book," Maria repeated as she stared at the girl. Maria had expected a calm day away from Stark, maybe she'd catch up on television and drink some tea. "Do you have a fever again?"

"I'm serious!" Mei said as she pulled the book out of her backpack. "It is the one we were sent here for. If they got it from the college or university, whatever, we can go back. Correct?"

Maria nodded. She had never thought that Mei would ever steal a book. Mei handed her the book before heading downstairs and into her room.

_Hey, can you grab my stuff from my locker after school? I just have some binders in it. Bring it all_

Mei sent the message to Skye before opening the lid of her laptop and going onto Netflix.

Netflix was calm, until she heard talking upstairs. She knew that everyone that was in "college" got home earlier than everyone else. So she walked upstairs so see exactly what she wanted to see. Bobbi with the other book.

"Does this mean we can go back to the Playground now?" Mei asked as she poked her out of the stairway. Coulson looked over at her.

"We still need the book from the high school," he said.

"I got it though!" Mei cried as she jumped out of the stairwell and over to the table were Maria placed the book.

"What? You got it?" Hunter stared at her as though she grew a second head. "But you don't have any abilities or training. You're like an infant in this profession," Mei glared at Hunter then turned to Coulson.

"So, can we go back? Preferably tonight? I miss my regular bed, never thought I'd say that," Coulson nodded as he pulled out his phone.

Mei hurried back downstairs to start to pack her bedroom stuff up. She looked over and saw the file sitting on her bedside table. She was tempted to look in it.

Who wouldn't be though? It was a file that said who she was. Who her parents were, why they couldn't take care of her.

She didn't look though. She was scared to know the truth. Sometimes being ignorant is better than knowing all the information, and if that meant not knowing who she really is Mei would go for it.

She put it at the bottom of her suitcase and started to pile clothing on top of it so it couldn't be seen.

Yup, ignorance is bliss.

* * *

"Billy!" Mei yelled as she ran over and hugged the keeper of the playground. "Oh I missed you!"

Billy seemed shocked, as did the rest of the team who were walking out of the BUS. Who was she and what has she done with Mei?

"Nice to see you too Mei," Billy said with a chuckle as he patted Mei on the back. The girl ran into the base ignoring the fact that her things were on the BUS. "What's she so happy about?"

"No clue," May said as she shook her head, watching the young girl run off. It was odd behavior of Mei, she was never like this.

Nobody questioned it though and thought maybe it was just the cold medicine that Simmons had forced her to take.

* * *

At lunch the next day Mei was back to her usual quiet self. There were only thing that was different was that she was actually eating in the same room as other people. She usually avoided doing that unless it was dinner when they had to.

She had her food set out in front her, a granola bar and a little plastic container of apple sauce. The kind that had the tinfoil top. She, like other people, were going to use the tinfoil as a spoon.

Hunter was walking over to put his stuff down on the table before he made his oatmeal when he dropped a spoon onto the table and it hit Mei's tinfoil covered apple sauce, denting it.

"You dented my apple sauce!"

"Sorry, jeez. I can't catch a break around you," Hunter said as he turned around to make the oatmeal. Mei really had no clue why he was eating oatmeal but didn't question it. When he turned around she swiped his spoon from his spot and placed it in her hoodie pocket. When she saw Skye giving her a look she put one finger up to her mouth.  _Shh_.

Nobody said anything as Mei continued to nibble on her granola bar. When Hunter came back she quietly laughed to herself as he questioned everyone on the whereabouts of his spoon.

"Bobbi, did you take my spoon?"

"Why would I need a spoon, Hunter? Please explain this to me," she said and looked up at him with an annoyed look. Hunter held his hands up in a surrender as he bent down to look on the floor.

"Why don't you get a different one?" Skye asked him as she held back her laughter. She was glad at this moment she was learning to control emotions with May.

"Because the rest are dirty since nobody has washed the dishes and we don't have that much cutlery," Hunter said.

"Then wash one," Mack suggested.

"Remember that time I said I was lazy? I still am, haven't changed," he said. Skye rolled her eyes as he went back to the kitchen grumbling about missing spoons and goblins. Mei took the tinfoil off of her apple sauce, then pulled the spoon out of her pocket and started eating her apple sauce.

Skye started to laugh, which caught onto Mack, Jemma and Bobbi. Mei laughed a bit herself as Hunter walked over. Somehow still oblivious to the fact that she was now using the spoon to eat.

"Seriously guys, where is it?" he asked as he started to look around again. Mei started to laugh harder as she spooned the pink tinted food into her mouth. "Mei-"

"I don't know," Mei said. When he looked at her though, he saw she was using it. Mei burst out laughing even harder.

"Seriously Mei?" he asked in exasperation. "Give me my spoon back!"

Mei continued to laugh though until all of the sudden she started crying. Of course, that was when Coulson walked in.

"Mei, what's wrong?" Skye asked. She was still laughing from the fact that Hunter didn't know who stole the spoon but it was disappearing as Mei cried.

"I don't know," Mei said as she tried to calm herself.

"Hunter, what did you do?" Coulson asked as he gave the British man a look and walked over to Mei to see if she was alright.

"Nothing! She stole my spoon!" Hunter said. Coulson looked around at all of them.

"What are you all, children?"

"Technically I am," Mei said as she wiped the tears off of her face. She smiled despite the odd crying incident. Messing with Hunter was her new pastime, she'd decided.

 


	12. Files and Foxes

Mei knew what it had to do with. She knew what the crying had to do with. And that thing was sitting on her table across from her bed, staring her down like it was daring her.

That file was going to be very bothersome.

She hated it. She had wanted to know about herself her whole life, but no while faced with the opportunity she couldn't do it. Nope, not gonna.

She needed to know though.

She didn't need to know.

She  _wanted_ to know

Didn't she?

Mei didn't know what she wanted. She wanted it to stop tormenting her like a playground bully. She wanted the file to stop bugging her, teasing her.

"Stop it," she hissed quietly to herself. "Its paper, what's the worst thing that could happen?"

The worse that could happen was that even though that was the file, everything could be redacted. The words she wanted to see could be gone. Never to been seen again because Hydra was holding all of S.H.I.E.L.D.S electronic files. Weren't they?

* * *

As winter turned into spring the weather started to clear up. And soon enough the snow was gone, and although the plants were still dead underneath them were alive ones ready to be introduced to the world.

Mei still hadn't look at the file, and it now sat in a drawer mostly forgotten.

It was currently 13 degrees outside (or 55 degrees as Skye had put it) and Mei was wearing her black leggings, a grey pull over hoodie with black triangle ears on it, and her doodles on pink converse.

May and Skye were working on target practice while Mei wandered around the forest slightly.

The base was surrounded by a forest, which was nice. Mei was currently wandering around looking at all the dead plants when she saw a flash of an orangey red. Curiously, she walked forward to see that it was not a plant, and her eyes had not been tricking her.

It was a fox.

Mei stared at it, and it stared back at her.

"Hello," Mei whispered. She wondered if foxes understood the human language. She knelt down, getting her leggings dirty in the progress. She held out her hand and slowly the animal walked over and sniffed her hand.

Its nose twitched as it stared at her and Mei smiled at it. It was cute. Hesitantly she reached out and touched its head and the fox didn't move, it let her pet its head.

"You're cute," Mei whispered to it again with a smile. The fox didn't say anything, just turned around and ran off. Mei stood up and started walking, she listened to the crunch of dead leaves and fallen branches under her feet.

It was the sound of the world around her was a nice change from the sound of being inside a military hideout. Everything was so alive, so bright. Although the colours were still bland and neutral, it was different. At least it wasn't different shades of grey.

Mei had become closer with May, Coulson and Skye during her time there. With Hunter dubbing her and Skye as their "kids" (even though Skye knew who her parents were and hated her biological dad).

As Mei walked she saw May and Skye up ahead. May wasn't holding her gun, and so Mei ran up and jumped on her back. The light weight of Mei didn't make May struggle at all, just grabbed Mei's legs to keep her steady.

May knew that Mei was there, as she heard the footsteps running behind her.

"Mei, you want to try shooting a gun?" Skye asked jokingly.

"No thank you," Mei responded as she wound her arms around May's neck. She looked over and saw the fox sitting in the distance. Skye finished packing up the guns as they made their way back to the Playground with Mei getting a piggyback rude from May.

Once they got inside Mei dropped down to the ground and headed off to her bedroom. The fox on her mind.

* * *

The next day Mei walked outside, some raw chicken in a container. She walked outside with yellow umbrella and started walking into the forest.

She walked a bit then stood under a tree, wondering if the fox would come.

Like she thought, it did come five minutes later. The nose twitching as it stared up at her.

Mei took the lid off of the container and put it on the ground. The fox walked over and gobbled up the meat and then stared at her.

"You know, I can't feed you all the time. This is just a treat," Mei whispered. Then something remarkable happened.

_I can hunt for myself_

Mei gasped. The fox could talk! It was a talking fox! Unless she was hallucinating. Maybe she was, hiding out and living with a bunch of secret agent adults and all.

"Are you talking to me?"

_Yes. Who else would I be talking to?_

Mei smiled at the fox.

"Just checking. Where are your parents?" she asked again.

_I don't travel around with them. I am alone_

Mei stared at the fox. That was sad, being alone. "I don't have any either. Except I live with people," Mei said. She realized that if anyone came by her they'd think she was mentally insane. She was talking to a fox. A fox. Normal people with normal brains didn't talk to foxes.

_I never said I don't have any. I do. Everybody does. I just don't see mine_

Mei stared down at the fox. His- or her- words were true. Everyone did have parents. You had to grow inside of someone, you needed someone to give the extra X or Y chromosome. She just didn't know her parents.

"I have a way of finding out who they are, I just haven't," Mei said.

_You should_

The fox said. Mei shrug and stared at it. What did a fox know? "Do I really want to know though?" Mei asked it. "Do I want to know whose DNA I have? Do I want to realize who I look like? Will I still be me or will I be known as  _their daughter_?"

The fox stared at her.

"What am I doing? I'm talking to a fox!"

Mei had tears in her eyes. These questions had been haunting her. Did she want to know who her parents were? Did she really? Would everything change around her if she knew?

_You should look. It is haunting you_

Mei nodded. "Will I feel better though?" she asked. "What if they don't want me?"

_How should I know? I'm just a fox_

Mei turned around and ran back to the base. She went into her room and started digging through her drawer till she found the file

That was how Mei ended up sitting in her room with the file sitting on the bed beside her. The tan colour of it stared up at her, her name in black ink teasing her. It wanted her to open it.

_Sung, Mei Zella_

Mei reached her hand out and it touched the folder. It was smooth like paper, it was paper. She wondered if it would tell her everything. Who her parents were, why they gave her up.

Her previous fear was still there though, what if it was censored? What would happen? Would she be able to handle almost seeing the truth and then it happening not to be there?

When she went to take her hand away, it twitched. The papers, which were admittedly very close to the edge of her bed, flew off with the small hit.

They scattered and Mei flew off the bed after them trying to stop them. It didn't work though, and her eyes went to one page.

* * *

Coulson and May were talking about their next stop in the mission to stop hydra (and recapture Ward) when Mei walked into the room.

On the surface she looked normal. She had on her shoes so she had been outside, but underneath, shown through her eyes, she was panicked.

"Mei? What's wrong?" Coulson asked the young girl.

"I want to go to New York," Mei stated. "To visit Maria. Please,"


	13. New York

_**Two Weeks Later** _

Stark tower was nice. It was large so there was lots of places for Mei to hide. Nobody looked for her there, they kept their distance.

She had a glimpse of Tony Stark once but she kept away, he was a billionaire and didn't need a child distracting him. She had talked to his CEO, and girlfriend, once. Pepper, she was nice.

Nobody here knew Coulson was alive, it was odd. Everyone had a purpose in the tower, a job to keep it running.

She noticed that the Avengers were here. That seemed good, since the world hated SHIELD and they'd need a place to hide out from that.

Mei liked to stand on the roof, stare out at everything in New York. Everything was so big, like it need to prove that it was the best. It was the thing everyone should be staring at.

"Mei, it's starting to rain," Mei didn't need to turn around to recognize Maria's voice. It was eight pm and Mei found herself on the roof. It was nice, a place away from the city. She could see it, witness the life in it, but not hear it. It was as though she was the spectator looking on into another life. She was like God.

"Mei, come inside. We're having drinks with the Avengers," Mei turned around quickly to stare at Maria.

"I am soaked and in no state to see the Avengers. We need to go to our floor to change!" A perk at working there was Maria had her own living floor. So, she rolled her eyes but nodded and followed the teenager off of the roof and into the elevator.

* * *

The Avengers were just like average people, Mei realized. They didn't expect special treatment, they didn't act like they owned the world. They were regular people.

When she walked in behind Maria, her union jack converse making no sound on the hardwood and her white skirt  _whooshing_  as she walked, Tony Stark offered her a coke with lime.

"No kid is allowed alcohol, even if I wanted it when I was your age," he said with a grin as he handed her the drink, playing bartender.

"Thank you Mr. Stark," Mei had said.

"Call me Tony," he said with a smile. Mei nodded and followed Maria to the sitting area. She sat on the couch with her.

She looked down at the ground as the adults talked, though once in a while she'd glance over at Captain America. She realized quickly that he was who Coulson idolized.

"So, we-"

"-I don't know what you're about to say, so not we," Mei interrupted Maria.

"Fine,  _I_  have something I need to say," Maria said as she stood up. "Coulson is alive."

This brought lots of conversation to the room. Coulson, alive? None of them had heard this.

"How?" Natasha asked.

"Fury has his ways," Maria said vaguely. Mei nodded along with her.

* * *

Having grown up in the city, Mei found that she could just leave the tower and not fear getting lost. Well, she could leave it but someone would potentially end up following her.

To not have this happen, she took a subway to Times Square. She looked behind her to see one of Starks security guards following a few paces behind her, trying not to look suspicious.

"Shoulda went to acting school," Mei muttered quietly to herself before she walked straight into a swarm of people. She walked every which way and down to a subway, she paid and got on. He wasn't following her.

Mei knew that her old home was still owned and that everything she had owned was still there. She was glad for that.

Nobody would expect her to go there, or it was so obvious that she'd go there that she wouldn't, either way nobody was there when Mei walked in the door and shut it behind her.

It was dusty, and when she flicked the light switch the light overhead flickered for a second.

The walls were so bare that it was like someone took everything away, but they weren't blemished. There were never pictures on them.

Why would you decorate when at any moment you might need to leave?

The apartment had an upper floor, so Mei walked up the old, creaking stairs to the landing.

Everything was bare and abandoned, but when she walked into the last door of the hallway, everything seemed different.

Unlike the rest of the house, this room was filled with colour. From the walls that were pink, a shade that only a child would choose, to the collection of stuffed animals, concert posters, Harry Potter or Twilight merchandise. The collection of books on the shelf, everything was hers.

Mei missed it, a place that was completely hers. Somewhere that she had grown up, a room that she'd hid in when Agent was angry or played in when he was happy.

She had a new room, but it wasn't the same. How could it be the same, it was in a secret base? This place was in the city that never sleeps, nothing would ever be the same as that.

Mei laid on the stomach and reached under her bed, pulling out a skateboard. She smiled at it, it was one of the things she'd left behind when she went to the playground, and it was something she was about to use again.

After locking up the house, Mei placed the keys in her backpack before gliding down the street on her board. It was nice to be like this again, with her black lulu sweater on, her white skirt and harry potter deathly hallows leggings and converse.

She wondered if she could just stay in New York. Mei knew she'd miss the base though, and knew that she couldn't run away from her problems forever.

The problems would always be there, no matter how much she tried to hide from them. There was no way to do that, they'd always be there lurking in the dark corners.

"Mei! I haven't seen you forever," A man behind a fruit stand said as Mei slowed down as she could talk to him.

"I know, I haven't been around," Mei said with a small smile as she rolled over to the stand. "How have sales been?"

"Oh the same," the man said with a grin. "Want a pear apple? Free of charge," he said.

"Thanks!" Mei said as she took the fruit and placed it in her bag. After waving goodbye, she started off again. Really, she had no clue where she was going. What was the point of knowing though when it will still be a surprise?

Mei finally ended up at an old, abandoned bridge. She sat down on old wood with her feet dangling above the river below. She pulled out the apple and bit into it, wondering how someone made one of these pear apples.

She wondered when she should go back, when she heard someone walking behind her.

"How'd you ditch the security?" she heard the person ask and sat down next to her. It was Tony Stark. Mei wondered why he was here, and not Maria. Really, Tony didn't know her. He didn't even know who she was. She hardly even knew who she was anymore.

"Times square, I just went into a crowed of a bunch of people. I had a different sweater inside my backpack so I just switched them," Mei explained.

"Good thinking," he said without looking at her. Mei returned the favour and stared out at the water. It was rushing below them. "What are you hiding from?" he asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Mei asked and looked up at him.

"I know that look, you're running and hiding from something. Maybe I can help, I do have lots of connection," she giggled.

"It's not something connections can fix, sadly," Mei said with a frown.

* * *

May was getting restless. Mei had been gone for two week and there were no missions, meaning the base was pretty boring. Of course, not having someone shooting at you was nice but she wanted something to do.

She was walking down the hallway when she stopped at Mei's door. The child left a mess where she went sometimes, how would her room be? May had never been in there, and she happened to remember Mei bringing plates of food in and not bringing them out.

Sighing, she opened the door and was shocked to see the room completely clean, besides one stack of dirty dishes sitting on the table. When she went to grab them though, something else caught her eyes. It was a folder, a SHIELD folder.

May reached over and grabbed it.

It was Mei's file.

May knew that it was wrong to open it, so she walked out of the room, leaving the dishes, to bring it to Coulson. He was the director after all.

When walking into his office, she saw him working on some paper work.

"Coulson, I found this in Mei's room." May stated as she placed the folder down on the desk.

"What were you doing in there?" Coulson asked as he glanced over at the folder and saw it was SHIELD. How would Mei get her hands on that?

"Cleaning," May said.

Coulson didn't say anything else as he grabbed the file and opened it. May stared at him, wanting to know what it said but knowing if he'd tell her.

"Mel…" he trailed off. "Remember thirteen years ago?"

"Of course," May said.

"She's ours," Coulson said as he looked back down at the folder.

* * *

"What do you mean?" Tony asked. He was confused, how could a thirteen year old feel like running away from problems.

"Well, as you probably don't know SHIELD agents aren't allowed to have kids if they work in the field because you can be compromised easily. Well, my biological parents were both SHIELD agents. Then I had to go live with an ex SHIELD agent who was a douche. Then he got killed and I got sent to go live at the playground because Maria said that it would be safer than here in New York. Well, I found out that the two top agents are my biological parents," Mei explained quickly.

"That… wow," Tony said. How did all this happen to a tiny thirteen year old. Decided to take the subject away from that, he looked around to see if he could find anything. "Do you skateboard?"

"Yeah," Mei said as she looked over at the board.

"Well, how about you skateboard back to the car and we can go back to the tower. Maria's freaking out," Mei laughed but nodded. The idea of Maria freaking out was hilarious to her.


	14. Dancing

"You're joking right?" May said as she stared at Coulson, trying to control her shaking hands. "Please say you're joking."

Coulson just shook his head. He wasn't joking, he was reading what it said on the page. And it clearly stated in black printing that he, Philip Coulson, was Mei's father. And she, Melinda May, was Mei's mother. Mei.

The girl who came with only three things holding her belongings. The girl who once went and sat in the gym while Skye did her training for sixteen days and just drew in silence, only being accompanied by the sound of fists hitting leather, a pounding heart and heavy breathing. The girl who once bought five sets of dominoes just to knock them down again. The girl once told May that they were all a large family with her and Coulson as the parents.

They were the parents.

Her parents.

May didn't know how long Mei knew for. She must have known for a long time though, having said that. "She once told me that we were all like a large family with me as the mother and you as the father," May told Coulson as she sat down on the chair. She was trying to get herself together. She couldn't break down. Nope.

"Why didn't she tell us?" Coulson asked. "Wait, how long has she known?" May doesn't answer him. Coulson doesn't seem to notice though. "Maybe that is why she wanted to go to New York, to hide away…"

May was staring down at the floor. While Coulson was trying to figure this out, out loud, she was internally. Why would Mei not tell them?

"We need to go to New York," May said suddenly. "We'll take the BUS, just the two of us. Grab Mei, find out what is going on,"

Coulson nodded and took a deep breath. This was going to be a long night.

"Wheels up in an hour"

* * *

**One day later**

After being told about the banquet that Tony was holding, Mei was told she had to attend because she was a resident in the tower, even if it wasn't permanent.

She was going through her backpack, trying to find something for her hair, when her hand hit something at the bottom.

Mei pulled it out and saw it to be her glasses case, which she had forgotten about.

"Mei, are you almost ready- what's that?" Maria looked into the room and saw the girl holding the case.

"My glasses that I never wear," Mei said as she opened the jelly bean pink case and pulled out the glasses. They were stereotypical hipster glasses but with a back frame that the bottom of were mint green.

They matched her mint green, floor length dress perfectly.

"Mei, wear them," Maria said with a smile. Mei nodded and opened them, putting them on. Maria grinned at the girl before helping her braid her hair.

The two then left the room and started down for the banquet room.

When the doors opened and the two were announced she saw Pepper grin at her from the table.

Her dress was mint green and went down to the floor, but from the waist up with was a white lace, while down it was a flowery mint.

The two sat down at the table with the Avengers, but Mei noticed there were two other seats across from them, empty.

"Who's sitting there?" Natasha asked as Tony sat down and the first course was served, soup.

"Two guests that we'll all be happy to see. Their flight was a little late," Tony explained.

Mei looked at him suspiciously but ate a bit of the soup. She wasn't that hungry, but knew there would be a lot of food at this.

They were into the course of salad when the doors opened and quietly, without anyone noticing two people walked into the hall.

"Agent Coulson! May! Glad you could make it," Tony said and Mei struggled to keep her head from popping up. What were they doing there? Well, it had been two weeks, probably coming to get her sorry ass back to the playground.

The two sat down across from them as Mei looked down at her food and suddenly felt aggressively unhungry.

There was some chatter around the table but not a lot, until people were allowed to get up and dance.

"Mei, why don't you teach Cap how to dance?" Tony said jokingly.

"I don't know how to dance," replied Mei as she looked up from her plate and over at Tony.

"We can fail together," Steve said with a shrug as he stood up and helped Mei stand. The two walked out into the group of people dancing, fading out of sight.

Nobody at the table said anything for a few minutes as they all looked for the two in the crowd, but only saw the swoosh of a mint dress once in a while.

"How long have you known?" Coulson asked Maria.

"Yeah," Tony said as he turned to the dark haired woman. "How long have you known he was alive before you told us?"

Coulson and Pepper turned to give Tony a look at the exact same time. "There is a time and place for this conversation, Tony, and this is not one of them." Pepper said as she shook her head. "That goes for you too," she said and looked at Coulson. "You do not have conversations like these in groups of people. That is how rumours spread,"

Coulson sighed but nodded, knowing it was true.

* * *

Mei slipped out of the banquet when it was midnight and went back upto the floor to go to bed. She didn't tell anyone, she didn't want to be cornered by Coulson and May

Maybe she was being paranoid, maybe she was being correct. But her idea was that if Coulson and May saw a chance to be alone with her they'd ask her how long she'd known. How she felt about it. If she wanted to call them  _mom_ and  _dad_.

She went thirteen years without parents. She wanted them, but could she just accept them coming into her life so quickly? Could she accept being pushed into this never changing life?

She was used to being Mei Sung, a girl who lived with an insanely serious ex-agent, skate boarder, artist, and a girl who didn't let people push her around but was still quiet. Could she become Mei Coulson (or Mei May), a girl with two parent who lives on a secret base and has to go undercover to stop hydra?

Since she was little, Mei never wanted to do anything that involved her working with police, law enforcement, anything to do with a gun. She just wanted to be normal, be an actor or an artist. Skate board, get married, have kids. A normal life.

That didn't seem to be the way things were going though, and the longer they went on the more Mei realized that nothing was going to go back to normal.

She'd always held onto that hope, and now that she realized that it wasn't happening… she didn't know how to feel. She didn't know what to do. There was a feeling or total loss of control, that feeling was not notice. Not at all.


	15. Waffles and Adventures

The next day Mei walked into the kitchen and saw Maria making waffles. Well, technically JARVIS was making them through the electricity, Maria was just putting the batter on the cookers.

"Morning, Mei," Maria said as she gave one to her.

"Morning," Mei said as she sat down on a stool and put some raspberries onto her breakfast.

Like lots of people, Mei was in an onesie. Hers was black with a captain America shield on it, and a grey hood. It had feet too, which Maria made fun of her for it too. It was only joking around though, since she was the one who got it for her.

Mei ate the waffles quickly, she wanted to get changed and out of the tower before she got cornered. She ran to her room to get changed into white, thin leggings with her black shorts and a purple shirt and black sweater.

She laced up her shoes and pulled her hair into a braid and put on her owl snapback. Mei knew she dressed differently here than when she was on base, but what kind of people was always the same wherever they went?

"JARVIS, where is Agents May and Coulson?" Mei asked the AI as she grabbed her backpack and put some snack bars in it and grabbed her skateboard from where it rested in the closet.

"Currently they are walking down the hallway, waiting for you," Jarvis said. Mei nodded thoughtfully as she looked over at the vent.

"Can you lead me through the vent?"

"Yes."

"Don't tell them what I'm doing," Mei stated as she walked over to the vent and took the top off it carefully before attaching her skateboard to her backpack and climbing in.

With JARVIS's assistance, Mei made it to an area where May and Coulson weren't, which happened to be Steve's living room.

"Steve," she whispered. He didn't hear her though as he made coffee in the kitchen.

"Mr. Rogers, I believe Miss Sung requires your assistance," JARVIS said.

"Where is she?" Steve asked as he put mug down.

"In the heating vent in the living area," JARVIS said. Steve seemed startled as he looked over and saw Mei looking out from behind the grating.

He quickly walked over and pried the metal off the wall and helped Mei out.

"What are you doing?" he asked after Mei had dusted the dirt off herself.

"Going on an adventure, don't tell anyone I was here," Mei said with a smile as she walked over to the elevator. JARVIS had the doors open, waiting for her. "Thanks, Cap!"

The doors closed as Steve mock saluted her. Mei looked at herself in the mirror before the doors opened on the main floor.

She walked out of the building with ease and down the street into the subway. Using her card, she got on and sat down. Since it was midday, the subway didn't have that many people on it, which she was grateful for.

Once she was where she wanted to be, Mei got off the subway and went up onto the street.

Since it was busy, she didn't ride her board down the sidewalk, but once she got to where she wanted to be she took it off her backpack.

"Mei!" Her friend Jordan "Jordi" said with a grin. Jordi was a tall, rake of a boy who was two years older than Mei.

"Hi Jordan," Mei said as she went over to the bench where he was sitting. While it was a skate park, Jordi didn't skate board. Since all his friends did though, he was often there watching the bags and making sure nothing got stolen.

She placed her bag down at his feet and plopped down on the bench.

"How is the disappearing girl these days?" Jordi asked as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Mei shrugged.

"You know, hiding away from problems," Mei stated as she looked over at all the people skateboarding.

"So, the usual?" Jordi asked her.

"Yup."

The two sat in silence for a bit before Mei stood up to join the people skating around. She didn't go on the pipe though, she just liked to go around on the flat.

She didn't trust herself not to get injured.

After a bit, Mei said goodbye and started back to her old house. She stopped on the way and got some boxes from the market.

Once getting there, she walked inside and up the stairs to her old bedroom and started putting things from her bedroom in the boxes.

If she had to move to the playground, might as well not leave her things there.

* * *

"Maria, have you seen Mei?" Coulson asked as he and May walked into the kitchen.

"Last time I checked she went to get dressed," Maria said as she placed the dirty dishes by the sink to be cleaned. Maria realized though, that Mei had left to get dressed over an hour ago.

After giving Coulson and May a look, she walked down the hallway to where Mei's room was and turned the handle, only to see that the girl was gone. The whole room looked untouched.

"Weird," she muttered and turned around to see May and Coulson right behind her.

"How long have you known?" Coulson asked suddenly. Maria sighed but waved for them to sit on the couch in the living area.

After they were all seated, Maria spoke. "I've known since Mei was born. Fury trusted me with this information because he knew I wouldn't give it away," Maria explained. "I didn't want to keep it a secret from you, Coulson, trust me. I was ordered to," as an agent, Coulson could relate to that. He remembered when May had to keep a secret from him because of orders too. "When you guys were undercover in Canada I gave the file to Mei, she must have not read it until she decided she wanted to come here,"

May and Coulson thought about this. Mei never talked about what was bothering her, so it was understandable that she never told them this information. Although, Coulson and May still wished she had instead of running off to New York. Speaking of running off…

"JARVIS, where did Mei go?" Maria said.

"I have been told by Miss Sung not to tell anyone where she has gone," the artificial intelligence said.

"Tell me or I shall shoot your circuit board," May spoke up in her monotone voice.

"She went down to Captain Rogers room through the ventilation system, and then left the building," JARVIS said. The three people heard a hint of fear in the computerized voice.

Maria seemed to know where she was though, as she motioned for the two other adults to follow her.

* * *

When they got outside the home that Maria hadn't seen in years, she noted how run down it looked.

The three walked up to the door, and Maria didn't bother to knock, she just opened it. Inside there was some music playing from upstairs.

"Mei up in the room probably," Maria explained.

"Did they clean it out when he died?" Coulson asked as he looked around at the barren hallway.

"Nope. He didn't bother to put things up," Maria shrugged and was about to walk forwards when she heard a crash, followed by a curse, and all of the sudden Mei running down the stairs and into the bathroom. "What did you do?" Maria asked as she walked forwards.

Walking into the bathroom, Mei was standing over the sink with the tap running. The water running down the drain was red from blood which was coming from her hand.

"I accidently cut my hand," Mei said as she let the water run over the wound. May walked closer and grabbed her hand to examine the wound.

"How?" May asked as she noted that it wasn't bad enough for stitches. She let go of Mei's hand as she started opening drawers, looking for band aids. There were none.

"I accidently dropped a picture frame and went to pick it up and I got cut?" the younger Mei was suspicious of them. What were they doing? Why were they freaking out?

"What are you doing here, it is supposed to be locked up," Maria said as she leaned against the doorway with Coulson hovering behind her.

"Packing up my stuff," Mei explained. "I went to the skate park for a bit, but then decided I wanted to come here to pack up stuff for storage and for my room at the playground."

Coulson felt an invisible weight lift off of his shoulders. He had thought that Mei would not want to come back to the playground and stay in New York for the rest of her teenage years.

Maria nodded in understanding. "No band aids?" she asked.

"Never have had any, don't know why there would be now," Mei shrugged as she lifted her hand from the water and opened the cupboard. She grabbed a purple towel and wrapped it around her hand.

"We'll help you finish packing," Maria said as she pushed herself off of the frame.

"And then we need to half a talk," Coulson finished for her firmly. Mei internally sighed, this was going to happen at some point. She just wished it wasn't so soon.


	16. Elephants and Mice

Mei was nervous for this talk. Really, she didn't want to have it but she was tired or running from it. Besides, this was gonna happen now. No running, no hiding.

When they got back to Stark tower they went to Maria's floor. Mei sat down on the couch, anticipating this conversation. How would it go?

"Want to start, or should we?" Coulson asked.

"I'll leave you to it…" Maria intersected as she left the room. Mei didn't say anything and looked down at her legs.

The three didn't speak. Mei tapped her fingers on the couch, as May and Coulson both stared at her.

"Maria gave me the folder when we were in Canada," Mei said quietly. "I didn't read it till the day I said I wanted to come here. I freaked out… I'm sorry,"

Neither adults said anything. Mei wondered what was going to happen, was she going to get to stay at the playground? Go to foster care? Stay with Maria?

She was sure Stark would allow her to live her if she asked politely.

"I've spent thirteen years wondering where they took you," May said quietly.

"If you don't want me at the playground anymore, I understand," Mei said.

Both adults' heads shot up when she said this and stared at her. "Mei," Coulson said. "You're coming back with us. You're our child,"

Mei didn't say anything. "I never told you, you both never knew. We don't exactly have the child/parents relationship,"

"We can create it," Coulson said.

"All truths start with a lie," May spoke up. "The lie was you not being our child, so now with this truth we can create a life. It won't be an amazing life, since we will be living on a secret base, but it will be a life none the less,"

Mei nodded. "Okay," she said. "I'm not calling you guy's mom or dad yet though. It isn't right yet,"

"Understood," Coulson said with a grin as he stared at her. His  _child_. It was so odd to think of Mei as his child. The young girl who he knew didn't even like being at the base.

None of them said anything.

"Agents Coulson and May, Miss Sung, dinner will be served in ten minutes,"

"Thank you, JARVIS," Mei said as she stood up to go change outfits and get a Band-Aid for her hand. She changed into her striped leggings and white dress that Maria had bought her with a black blazer.

She walked out with no socks on and went into the elevator, May and Coulson following her.

When the doors opened on the main living floor Tony looked up. "Skater girl!" he said with a grin. "Nice to see you in one piece,"

"Hi Tony," Mei said with a smile as she went to sit on the couch with Maria and Natasha. Maria brushed a piece of Mei's hair behind her ear as Coulson and May went and sat down too.

It was slightly awkward, everyone having thought Coulson was dead and everything.

Everyone was having different, small conversations. And these conversations gradually went over to the table where everyone sat down. Mei knew she would miss this, but couldn't help but be happy she was going back home.

* * *

Three days later she was back at the playground and in the forest surrounding it.

The fox was sitting under their tree waiting for her.

 _You've been gone_ , was the first thing it said to her.

"I have," Mei noted as she sat down on the ground cross legged. She didn't know what to say, so the two of them just sat there in a comfortable silence. "Ever been to the city?"

 _I am just a fox,_  it said to her.

"Right," Mei said. "Forgot,"

_You seem to do a lot of forgetting_

The teenager rolled her eyes as she looked up at the while sky. She wondered if behind the white of the clouds it was a nice, happy blue sky. Or maybe it was an angry dark one.

"I know," Mei said as she laid back on the dirty ground. The fox didn't follow her lead, and just stared at her front where it sat.

Mei didn't say anything as she turned her head to the side. A mouse sat there quietly. Briefly she wondered if foxes ate mice.

"Hello," Mei said to it. The mouse didn't respond though, just twitched its little nose and scurried away. She rolled her eyes.

 _The human is the mouse to the mouse_. The fox said as it looked at Mei with dark eyes. Mei's one eye brow rose as she gave the fox a look.

"'The human is the mouse to the mouse'… what does that even mean?" she asked as she sat back up. Mei completely ignored the dirt and leaves that had accumulated in her hair.

 _Elephants are scared of mice. Mice are scared of humans, therefore we are the mouse to their elephant_ , the fox explained in a monotone voice. Mei nodded, although she still didn't completely understand.


	17. Tea

Skye was getting worse, and while Mei knew about this, the earthquakes, nobody else knew. Well, she assumed Fitz knew by the way he was trying to hover, but Mei didn't say anything. Nobody did, they tried to keep it a secret.

Part of Mei didn't understand why Skye didn't tell Coulson about this. He needed to know, he could help her. Another part understood why. Mei knew that Skye wanted to handle this herself, she had grown up not relying on anyone else why would she want to now?

It was completely logical, Mei knew that. She wished it wasn't something logical though, because then she could go against it. Mei tried to stay with logic though, even when it went against everything. Like talking animals.

Mei didn't tell anyone that. She didn't want people to know she could talk to animals, they'd think she was crazy.

She was starting to consider herself crazy though, and Mei didn't like that. It wasn't the life she wanted for herself, one where she was insane. Crazy.

Mei was walking into the kitchen when she looked and saw a lady with a cut standing there with Coulson, May and Skye. Mei stopped and stared at her, not saying anything. They were all talking, the lady looked slightly confused.

"Mei," Skye said as she walked over. The two walked the rest of the way into the kitchen and while Mei got her stuff to make tea together, Skye leaned against the counter.

"That's Lady Sif, one of Thor's warrior," Skye explained to her as Mei started to fill up the kettle. "She has amnesia… or something. Something tampered with her memory and she doesn't remember who she is,"

Mei nodded along with Skye as she glanced over at the lady again. "They're going to go try and find whoever did it."

"Are you going too?" Mei asked as she pulled a mug down from the cupboard.

"No, I don't feel up to it," Skye explained. Mei nodded as she looked around again. She quietly poured herself some tea before walking from the room.

Mei didn't want to be around for this, especially if some alien person was in their base. That mustn't be safe. Really, it's wasn't safe. How did they know they could trust it? Just because they know Thor? Well Thor knew Loki and that turned into a bad idea.

Mei walked into her room, sat down and went back to binge watching BONES on her computer.

* * *

Mei was on her third cup of tea, and walking down the hallway with the mug full of the hot stuff, when everyone decided to run down the hallway. Mei was confused, because everything was shaking so she was trying to get a hold on her tea.

Then, May and Skye ran past her. Mei realized that the shaking was because of Skye. Skye was in good hands though, so Mei decided to just focus on not spilling on herself.

The next person to run by was Fitz, which shocked Mei. The third was a man that Mei didn't know. He ran after them with an air of anger. Mei was apparently in his way though, because she was crossing the hallway, and he threw her into the wall.

Of course, Mei was not happy with this because not only was she  _thrown into a wall_ , but her tea was smashed, and spilt, underneath her.

Mei didn't know how to react, her body tried to arch away from the scolding hot liquid, but that hurt because of the glass.

She looked up to see others had been thrown too, but apparently Bobbi had gone after him. Which was nice, that meant that someone was getting that man for being a total, and utter douche.

Mei slowly pushed herself up and looked down at the ground below her. She winced as she saw the colour of tea mixed with the red of blood.

After getting to her feet, Mei walked into the main room to see everyone else (who hadn't noticed her there) standing around looking at everything. The shaking had stopped, but glass was shattered and things fallen.

"Jemma," Mei said as she leaned against the doorway.

"Not now, Mei," Jemma said as she surveyed the damage and wondered if she needed to get out things to check for alien activity, even though it was only Skye. It was Skye that did this, that fact scared her and made her sad. Why wouldn't Skye tell her about this? She could help.

"No, now Jemma," Mei said as she looked down at her white shirt and saw it was turning red. Jemma didn't turn though so Mei walked out of the room and down the hallway. "Coulson!"

Mei had no clue where Coulson was, probably down in the basement with Skye, Mei and that Sif lady. "Coulson!"

There was no answer though, and it was a moment when Mei wished that she owned a cellphone and not just an iPod. She started towards the open stairway door but didn't feel well. She looked down, having landed hard on the glass, along with hot water, it hurt a lot, and there was blood.

Mei decided to try once more before she sat down on the ground.

"Dad!" she yelled as loud as she could. Mei had no clue if Coulson heard her though, so she sat down on the ground and rested her head on the wall.

She heard footsteps.

"Mei?" Mei looked up to see Fitz.

"Fitz," Mei sighed in relief. "When that dude ran, he threw me into a wall. I was holding tea…"

"Shit," Fitz said as she ran over to her and helped her to stand so they could go to the lab. "Did you take the shards out?"

"No,"

"Good."

The two walked slowly, and once they got there Fitz got Mei quickly onto the cot. The thing was, he wasn't experienced in this type of thing. He was an engineer, not a doctor. "I need to... umm…"

"Find someone who can sew, or knows how to do medical stuff?" Mei asked.

"Yeah," Fitz said as he looked around. Nobody was in there, and there were things all over the ground.

"Jemma was too busy when I tried to get her attention before. Didn't even look over," Fitz grabbed her cellphone out of his pocket and dialed a number.

Mei watched, wondering what he was doing.

She heard someone walking towards the lab, and Fitz looked over. He obviously never knew someone was coming in here either

"Fitz, I need to talk to you." She heard Coulson say. Mei wondered what he was going to say. Probably something about Skye.

"Over here, sir," Fitz said as he started to gather things they'd need for stitches.

As Coulson walked around the shelving unit, Mei wondered what he was going to say. He stopped when he saw her. "What happened," he asked and quickly walked over to her.

"Crazy man threw me into a wall while I was holding hot tea," Mei explained. "I was using May's mug, she's going to be pissed."

Coulson rolled his eyes. "I think she'll understand." he said as he motioned for Fitz to hand him everything he needed to fix the cuts, glass and burns.

It was quiet as Coulson worked. Mei looked over at Fitz who was looking down at his phone. She wondered who he tried to contact to come help them.


	18. SHIELD vs SHIELD

"Something is going on," Mei said to Fitz about a week later. Hunter was missing, Bobbi and Mack were both gone, Skye was being taken somewhere to protect her. Everyone was keeping secrets, and she didn't like it.

Mei had a bad feeling about this.

"Something is," Fitz agreed. The two were hiding in a secluded corner of the lab, away from Jemma and the other scientists.

"Skye gone, Hunter disappeared, Mack and Bobbi acting odd… something is off," Mei stated as she placed her head on the desk rather violently, making Fitz wince and the other scientists glance over in their direction.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, willing their separate brains to come up with a joint idea.

"What if Hunter and Bobbi ran off and got married?" Mei asked finally. The idea really wasn't that far-fetched.

"This isn't one of your novels, Mei," Fitz reminded her.

"Worth a shot." Okay, maybe it was far-fetched.

"You know what, why don't we just ask Coulson?"

"He doesn't know, remember?"

The two sighed. Mei stood up and left, knowing that since she and Fitz never spent much time together before it would be odd.

She made her way back to her room when she glanced towards the door and watched Mack walk back into the base. Maybe that meant that Bobbi and Hunter would be back soon!

Something was going on though, Mei could tell by the look on his face. So Mei walked to her room and decided to make an escape plan. Without anyone else of course, who knew who she could trust now that Skye was gone.

* * *

The problem with being a teenager with a secret in a building full of spies who keep secrets with secrets and who are masters at figuring out your secret, is that you must always be one step ahead of the people who are trained to be one step ahead of you. Which also meant always being one step ahead of yourself.

Mei did not like planning, it was too complicated and created much more thought than she wanted to give it. She believed that if she thought of something too much she'd over think it, which is what she usually did.

The teenager liked to live in the moment, like when she decided to go to New York, thinking over an escape plan for the future was not living in the moment. It was living in the future, who wanted to live in the future?

Mei would have rather lived in the past, and yet there she was thinking of the best way to escape when she heard some commotion.

With her backpack on (and her skateboard strapped to that) Mei went to look what was going on. She was planning to go on a day out, find a place to hang out for a bit away from everything. It looked as though that wasn't going to happen though, as someone was invading the base.

"You've got to be kidding me." Mei muttered under her breath as she ran the opposite way and out the old exit she'd found months ago.

She left without anyone noticing and ran. She looked behind for a second and saw a man coming, but all of the sudden there was a flash of red and the fox was on him.

 _Go Mei!_  She heard the little fox say.

Not needing to be told twice, Mei quickly ran out of sight and down a hill. Really, she had no clue where she was headed. But being hidden was better that way at least. It wouldn't be obvious then.

* * *

After an hour of running, then some more hours of skateboarding, she heard a car stopping behind her. She looked to see a man get out, but he didn't look like an agent of any kind.

In fact, he looked quite familiar.

"Mei," he said in a thick, Spanish accent. "It is me, Jorge Gomez Melendez,"

Mei suddenly placed him in her mind from when she was little. He was a friend of Agents, would come over when Agent left for a bit.

"Hello," Mei said quietly as she stared at him. He was older than she remembered, but she was older than he remembered too.

"I am not with SHIELD any more," he stated as though it was something she'd need to know. Mei really wasn't sure why she'd need to know this information. "Nor am I with Hydra,"

"I'm not either. Well, I was living with SHIELD, or what's left of it, for a bit." Mei said as she stared at him, not moving any closer.

"That doesn't sound like you,"

"I wish it wasn't me," Mei said. "Some people invaded so I got out. Although, don't know where I'm going to go now…"

"Come with me, I am headed to the airport to go back to España. I can keep you safe there," Mei nodded. Although she was slightly hesitant, she needed to get away from here. Spain was the perfect place, mostly since she was planning on getting to New York somehow.

She climbed into the passenger's seat, putting her bag and skateboard at her feet.

"Thank you," Mei said to him without looking.

"I made a promise to your Agent once, to keep you safe. I plan on doing that, even if you aren't a little one any more."

* * *

"You're coming with us, Agent May," the man who said he was SHIELD said as they pulled her from the room. May wasn't happy about this and looked around.

She caught sight of Jemma and Fitz in the lab with their old professor. She had no clue where Bobbi had gone off to.

Her only hope was that Skye had gotten away. And that Mei was safe.

Wait.

Where was Mei?

May hadn't seen her since that morning, hours before the attack. She'd been asking to go see Skye, that maybe she could go hang out there with her. Coulson had said it wasn't a bad idea and Mei had given them a glare that almost beat Natasha's.

Almost.

May looked around, craned her neck to see if they had the small girl. Mei was nowhere to be seen though. The door to her room was closed, which meant they might leave her alone.

Another thought crossed her mind though. If Bobbi was on the bad side, she could get to Mei. Mei was too young for all this, and May wished she'd left her in New York now. At least with the Avengers she wouldn't be up against a different SHIELD, a SHIELD that could possibly just be hydra.

May felt worry for the girl. She was her daughter, her flesh and blood. May had no clue where she was, but she wasn't going to ask now. No, she'd wait till they were at their most vulnerable.

" _The girl got away_ ," she heard a crackling voice say through one of the radios.

" _Find her_ ," another voice said.

" _It's as though she just disappeared_."

" _We need her. Who knows what powers she possesses? Find her, and bring her alive._ "

* * *

Spain was as pretty as Mei would have thought it was, therefore it didn't make it a bad place to lay low.

Jorge had a large mansion with a view of the ocean, and a beach was just down the street. And even though Jorge promised that he had his own, private beach, Mei knew she'd go down to the public one.

The night she got there, she had a message from May.

_Change your name, change appearance as much as you can, burn this._

Mei wasn't completely sure about the burn this part, but Jorge helped her as much as possible.

They went out and got her hair cut off to her shoulders, which felt weird for her since it was usually so long. They also got it dyed to a light brown instead of black.

Her outfits were brand new, her iPod shut off, wiped, and destroyed. He bought her a new phone and they decided that she was his second cousin's daughter. Her name was changed to Dominica, and Mei suddenly understood why Agent was so angry when he took her.

He had to change everything about him, every aspect of his life, who he was. Mei wasn't allowed to be herself, to be safe she had to be someone new. Someone who never existed in the first place and had suddenly popped out of thin air.

Papers were made, birth certificates, everything. Mei was gone, and Dominica was in her place.

Finally secrets wouldn't be kept from her, she'd be the ones keeping them.


	19. Thoughts

Agent May had many things to think about while she was down in the bases small prison like room. One was how Coulson was doing, if he was staying where he was supposed to and not doing anything he'd regret later.

Fat chance, he was probably trying to save them all. That was the type of man he was, always trying to help them. Save them. He was probably trying to find them now, get them back. Or at least get to Skye.

Skye was another person whom May was worried about. She had no clue whether she got away or was captured. Where would she had gone though? As far as she knew, Skye had no friends outside of SHIELD. And definitely no family, unless you counted Cal.

While she also worried about the others on her team, May was also concerned for Mei. She had no clue where the child had gone, had she been captured as well? Let go?

Mei couldn't fight, well May didn't know if she could and they had never seen her fight. Mei was thirteen, tiny, and innocent to the world that was evil for the most part. There was one conciliation, Mei was good with words.

As far as they knew, Mei was kind and that got her places. Although stealing a book was much easier than escaping ex-SHIELD agents, even if they did say they were the  _real_  SHIELD, they had all been trained the same.

May didn't often fears things but this was one of the things she did. Mei was alone, and somewhere where she could get hurt. That wasn't good. Not at all.

* * *

Mei stood in her room, looking out at the sky that was fading into the ocean. Everything looked peaceful, almost safe.

It looked like it did in fairy tale books, with the watercolour like colours and paintbrush strokes. Everything was still. A picture on a wall.

It was disturbed though when a plane flew past, a black dot in the sky and an argument that could be heard from her third floor bedroom window.

Mei couldn't understand Spanish that well, and considering she wasn't Spanish that made sense. She tried to make sense of it all, but none of it ever did.

Mei tried to avoid speaking it, just not to give herself away. At the school she was known as a recluse, well that was what the only person who spoke English told her.

She didn't really care that much, Mei wasn't there to make friends. She was there to hide from the appending threat. Although, Mei wasn't completely sure that the threat was. Nobody had told her.

Those people didn't seem like Hydra, but who else would be going against them? Nobody else really cared about SHIELD, at least she thought they didn't.

Mei sighed as she quickly changed into her school clothes. She was still getting used to her short hair, and it bugged her. Looking in the mirror, she regretted cutting it off and felt remorse for the locks that were gone.

She knew it had to be done though. She wanted to be safe, away from those who could kill her. Like hyrda, or whoever those people were.

It still filled her with remorse though, she hadn't cut her hair for a long time and now it was all gone. Then again, not all of it was gone. Just the old parts, but to her it felt like all.

It felt like not that long ago when she was getting yelled at by Agent for cutting off all of her own hair with Jordi for something they had called  _hair soup_. Yes, that outdoor play kitchen said had been taken away right after that.

Of course, Mei knew she couldn't dwell on that. Nor could she ignore the fact that she simply had to leave for school soon.

She slipped on her pastel blue flats before walking from her bedroom with her backpack over her shoulders.

Downstairs was slightly cooler than upstairs considering that heat rose, but Mei still wasn't used to these temperatures in early April.

"Ah, Dominica, Buenos dias,"

"Hola," Mei said as she sat down at the breakfast table. They didn't talk much after that, Mei ate her Magdalenas and drank her glass of orange juice before saying a quick goodbye and heading out the door.

Although she could have walked, a man opened the door for her and she got into the back of the Black Bentley Mulsanne. The windows were tinted, making everything outside seem darker than it was.

She sat back as the man got into the driver's seat and started off to her school.

* * *

May didn't like this. They'd come and gone again. She knew they were looking for Coulson. The thing she didn't know was if they were out for blood or not.

They didn't trust them. Apparently they believed themselves to be the real SHIELD. If there were two though, which one was real and which fake? Obviously the one with Coulson was the real one, Fury had left it to him.

It had dawned on May a while ago that they didn't know that. Nobody except them knew that Fury was alive, they thought that Coulson had just decided to take her.

May knew though, she knew that given the choice Coulson wouldn't have chosen to be the head of SHIELD.

She'd also been asked who the teenager was. Apparently Mei had pictures of her and her friends up in her bedroom, they'd taken one down, handed it to her. Asked her who she was.

It was obvious that Mei was her daughter. Anyone with a brain and a decent set of eyes could tell. Of course, after they said they knew who she was. May still hadn't talked.

Then they asked where she was, and that's when May realized that Mei had escaped. Somehow the teenager had escaped.

That was good, that meant she was safe somewhere. There was one question though, where was she?


	20. Italy

Mei never actually realized that she could miss the playground. Of course, she had wanted to go back before but she had never missed the place in itself.

She couldn't pinpoint why she wanted to go back, all she knew was that she wanted to. It was preposterous too, since she had a perfect life here, even if it was fake.

Mei had a friend who was also from North America and whose parents got sent to Spain because of their jobs. She was going to an English school, even though Spain was Spanish. She didn't question it.

Her room was large with a small library attached and a view of the ocean. They had wonderful grounds and she could do whatever she wanted, it was every teenagers dream.

So why was she so unhappy?

It seemed illogical for her to be unhappy. She had everything she could ever want and more. A perfect home with people who took care of her. Good clothes, good food, everything she wanted at a snap of her newly manicured fingernails.

Mei knew why she was unhappy though, no matter what she would find at least one thing to be miserable about. She was human after all, and humans wanted everything to be perfect, and were unhappy when one little thing wasn't.

Mei was standing in her bathroom and curling her hair one Saturday evening. She was bored and had no clue what to do. Curling her hair was easier than it used to be, but she didn't like it. Her hair was much shorter than it was, and now brown. She wasn't used to it.

Mei sighed and turned off the curling iron. After placing it on the marble counter top she looked at herself in the mirror.

Although the curls seemed to suit her, Mei missed her long hair. Nothing could fix that.

She quietly left the room and wandered back to her room.

* * *

It was three weeks later when Jorge told Mei that the two of them would be going on vacation to Italy.

They were going to Southern Italy to a house that he had there. Nobody else would be there, and if someone came in he swore she wouldn't see them.

Mei had nodded and packed some of her things into a bag and they were off.

The plane ride wasn't that bad, and the house they were in was beautiful.

One morning Mei put on her lululemon shorts and headed off to the beach. Although she was wearing shorts she was still wearing a hoodie, and was kicking around sand wondering if she should make a sand castle when in the distance she saw people walking towards her.

Although she could recognize them, she felt as though she knew them. Mei didn't wait to know though, as she turned around and rushed up the hill towards the house.

"Jorge!" she called as she ran into the spacious foyer.

"Sí, Mei?" he asked and looked over at her from where he was sitting in the floating living area.

Mei made her way up the stairs as she looked at him.

"There are people coming, I saw them on the beach." Mei explained as she sat down on the edge of the couch. Jorge nodded and looked thoughtful for a second.

"Why don't you go get something to eat? I'll go see," He said and walked away. Mei sighed but followed his instructions and headed off to the kitchen.

Sitting down at the table, she grabbed the fruit bowl and started eating some strawberries nervously. What was happening and why were people coming? It wasn't as though her existence was that known throughout the world.

Yes, she was Coulson and May's daughter but they weren't celebrities. Only a select amount of people knew who they were.

Mei clicked her nails against the counter as she waited.

When she heard the door open again, Mei didn't turn around but straightened up. She hoped to hear the person to know if they were good or not before turning around to maybe face her death.

She didn't hear anything though, so turned around to see Coulson and May standing there with Jorge.

"Mei," Coulson breathed out. He was thankful for this, it meant one of the girls was okay.

"You gave me a heart attack," Mei accused but turned the rest of her body around as far as the chair would allow her so she could face them. "I don't appreciate heart attacks."

"Our bad." May said dryly as she looked around the open air house with her eyes. It was beautiful and she wondered if there was where Mei had been the whole time. It was difficult tracking her down, and as she looked at the counter it was a phone and not an ipod.

Mei followed her eyes and suddenly looked slightly upset but tried to keep her face neutral.

"We all shall go talk in the living room, yes?" Jorge said. Mei nodded and stood up, grabbing her cellphone and following him with May and Coulson behind her.

Mei sat down on one of the white couched and pulled her feet up. Coulson was looking at her, she thought she had something on her face. In reality he was looking at her hair which was cut and dyed.

It wasn't like it was bad, and it suited her, it was just a change that Coulson wasn't expecting. Although, he liked her natural hair better.

"How did you find us?" Jorge asked.

"Mei has a tracking device on her." May said with a straight face. Mei instantly started trying to find it as she looked around at her clothes. "Everything is mostly figured out now," she explained.

Jorge nodded but didn't look like he believed her. "What do you mean by mostly?" he asked.

"Well, there is an organization that believes they are also SHIELD, they called themselves  _The Real SHIELD_. They wanted to take us over, we've agreed to work together though." Coulson explained as he looked over at Mei. "How did you…?"

"She was running, I picked her up on the side of the road, I'm assuming near your base, and brought her back to Spain with me," Jorge explained. "I knew the agent that was in charge of her."

May nodded as she looked over at Mei.

"You dyed your hair." She said as she held back the urge to reach over and tough the shorter and lighter locks.

"Yeah, not my most favourite thing in the world," Mei said with a shrug. "I liked it darker."

Jorge rolled his eyes. "You can go back down to the beach now, Mei. I will get your parents settled." Coulson watched and waited for Mei to have some type of reaction. She didn't though as she just nodded and head back down to the beach.

Jorge waited till Mei was out of the house and had shut the door behind her till he spoke to May and Coulson.

"I don't know if it is a good idea for her to go back with you," he said in a voice that implied he'd been thinking about it for a while.

"Why not?" Coulson asked with an amused grin as he leaned back into the cushions.

"Mei needs stability and a real family, she can get that here," Jorge explained. "Yes it may be in a country that speaks another language, but at least she has a family environment."

Coulson and May shared a look.

"We're her parents,"

"But you are also agents,"

"Or we could just let her decide for herself." May cut in as she looked between the boys. "Mei is thirteen, she can decide where she wants to live without people deciding her fate for her."

* * *

Mei walked out the door and down the path a bit before she turned to look through the large windows. They looked to be having a serious conversation, and Mei had a suspicion that it was about her.

She knew she'd probably be going back to the base. And while she'd miss living in Spain, she was glad to be going back. She hoped not a lot had changed, or that at least Skye was there.

Once she was down at the beach again she sat down in the shade and started to build the sand castle she was debating before.

It wasn't so much a castle though as a lump of sand with a door like shape drawn onto it. Mei wasn't particularly proud of it, but it was something she created so she had to like it at least a little.

There wasn't much wild life around, and it disappointed Mei. She wanted to know if she was going crazy, or if she could actually have conversations with animals. She needed to test on other animals though, and not just that fox.

Because of the sand, the footsteps coming up to her were muffled, but when a shadow was cast over her she looked up to see Coulson looking down at her.

"Sup?" she said with a nod of her head. Coulson rolled his eyes as he motioned to where some chairs sat alone. Mei stood and followed him over, she looked towards the path and didn't see May. Where was she? "Where's Agent May?"

"Inside, getting the rooms settled. We're staying the night, that's actually what I needed to talk to you about." He said to her as he crossed his leg over the other and looked past Mei towards the ocean.

"You staying the night? It's cool," Mei said with a shrug. "Lots of rooms, the ocean sounds cool at night. Although, sometimes it gets annoying."

Coulson laughed slightly and shook his head. "No, Mei. Maybe I wasn't specific enough. We want you to come back with us."

Mei sat in silence for a second and let her brain make the decision. While she liked Spain, she quite liked being around people that spoke the same language. And while she enjoyed sleeping in an actual house and having friends, she rather missed Coulson and May.

Mei wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she craved a parent-child relationship type thing with them.

"I'll go back. What's life without a little excitement and threats on your life?"


	21. SHIELD

The night before they left there was a thunderstorm. Mei wasn't fearful of it per say, she just wasn't fond of it.

It wasn't as though the storm actually scared it. It looked pretty, but the ocean wasn't tame because of her which made her uneasy.

All the power had gone out so she wasn't using her cellphone to save its charge. She sat in the window, watching outside, the wild waves, the trees blowing in the wind and a little beyond to the right, the vineyards.

Mei wanted to read but needed light for that, and she didn't have a book light. She should have, but she didn't.

Really, she should have been asleep. It was ten o'clock, and while that wasn't exactly late for a teenager, there was nothing else to do and she'd be leaving in the morning.

Mei sighed as there was another flash, lighting up the sky and the water below.

She heard a creak and turned around to see a silhouette in the doorway.

"We're leaving early tomorrow," May said as she walked further into the room and looked around. Mei's clothes were in a disastrous pile on her suitcase, and in the dark of the room she could see that the bed was not made.

"Okay." Mei replied. May walked over and sat on the other side of the ledge, and looked out. Mei's window was open, letting in a cool breeze.

May looked over at Mei and studied her face. "We can buy some hair dye if you'd like, dye your hair back to its natural colour…"

Mei nodded "I'd like that." she smiled slightly. May nodded and looked back outside.

The two were in a comfortable silence for a while.

"You know, having a kid when you're an agent was probably a shitty idea." Mei said suddenly without looking away from the window. May looked away from the wind and over at Mei. The young girl had amusement written across her face.

"Well in my defence I had planned to go into SHIELD retirement," May defended. Mei shrugged. "If I hadn't had you, you wouldn't be alive."

"Good point, Agent." Mei smirked slightly before letting her face go back to normal. May looked back outside for a few minutes before standing up.

"Bed," She said finally. Mei groaned but followed the instructions. She went over to the messy bed and laid down on it and under the covers. "You know," May started. "If you ever need to talk about anything,  _anything_ , I'm here."

"I know." Mei replied as she closed her eyes. Briefly she wondered if she should ask about the fox. About how it talked to her, but she didn't. That was something Mei wanted to figure out on her own.

May left the room quietly and shut the door while Mei silently tried to figure that out. How could she find out how a fox was talking to her?

* * *

That morning Mei and Jorge were out in the front grass area of the house.

"We're going to practice some self-defence," he said to her. Mei stood awkwardly, picking at her nails.

"Why?" Mei asked. Jorge rolled his eyes.

"So you don't get hurt if someone attacks you." His tone was still patient.

"I have a May." Mei responded simply as she looked over at the house. Coulson and May had gone to prep the quinjet, so she didn't have to worry about embarrassing herself in front of them.

Jorge sighed. "Mei, Agent May won't always be there to save you. There is going to come a day when it is just you, and I want to help you learn how to protect yourself. Okay?"

"Fine." Mei pouted but went into that fighting position he had taught her earlier.

While they fought he went easy on her, and while Mei appreciated it (because while he was going so easy it was almost painful) she was still losing.

Finally, Mei was getting tired. She had gotten him on the ground, and just as May and Coulson were turning the corner to get to the front of the house, Jorge pulled Mei down.

Nobody was expecting though, to her to hand with her elbow on his face.

"Ouch! Mei!" Jorge groaned.

"What? You pulled me down, I have an elbow. I made it work," Mei shrugged and turned around to see Coulson quietly laughing and May with no expression on her face.

* * *

"You can phone me anytime," Jorge said to Mei. Her suitcase was packed and sitting in the quinjet. Her hair pulled away from her face with a headband, but still falling down onto her shoulders in stringy, wet pieces.

"I know, thanks for everything," Jorge and Mei hugged before she climbed up onto the quinjet and sat down on one of the seats.

Jorge look on as she pulled out her phone and plugged the buds into her ears. He looked at May and Coulson who stood a little off to the side, May with her feet apart and hands behind her back, and Coulson looking all official standing beside her.

"Be careful with her," Jorge quietly said to him so Mei didn't hear. "Mei needs you."

"We know," Coulson said as he looked at the man. He wasn't completely sure whether or not he trusted Jorge, but he owed the man for hiding Mei for them.

"She needs parents, not superiors," Jorge explained. "She isn't an agent, she is your daughter. Even if she doesn't believe it."

The two adults nodded before saying their goodbyes and heading onto the jet.

May went to the controls and soon they were flying high in the sky. Coulson looked over at Mei and saw she was invested in something on the phone.

"Where's your ipod?" Coulson asked. Mei looked over at him and pulled the buds out of her ears. "Where's your ipod?" Coulson asked again.

"When I went to Spain Jorge destroyed it so nobody could track me," Mei said with a guilty look on her face. "Sorry."

"Smart move," May said from the front of the jet. Mei nodded and put her headphones back in again. Coulson sighed, obviously Mei wasn't going to be talking much, something she got from her mother.

* * *

They had a stop in Spain to collect Mei's things before they headed back to the Playground.

Mei felt a bit of relief as they walked off, her dragging two suitcases behind herself. Her headphones slightly falling out the pocket of her hoodie.

Walking into the hallway was when Mei first realized that something had changed. There were different people walking around, and she didn't see Skye who would usually be there quickly.

Mei felt her test tighten slightly as they continued on to her room. Going in she had assumed that everything would be left alone. It should have been, since nobody dared go into her room.

If it wasn't the same she expected it to be torn apart, with everything in disarray because of the people who invaded, were apparently staying.

What Mei hadn't expected was for her room to be perfectly clean and organized. The pictures of her and her friends in New York were still hanging on the fairy lights on the walls, the framed pictures of her and Jordi still sat on her bedside table.

Everything that was cluttered around the room had been put in its proper place, the tables could be seen again.

Mei wondered how this could have happened. She put her stuff down and looked behind herself to see that May and Coulson had gone off somewhere. She pulled her suitcases all the way into the room and sat down on the bed.

That's when she smelt it, someone else's perfume. It was there, hanging in the air.

Mei had no clue whose it was, but when she laid down and smelt it on her pillow she tried to find the person in her brain. She couldn't find them though.

She sighed and left her room to go find something to eat. Mei was stopped though by a man who beckoned her into an office.

This office wasn't Coulson's office, but it was official looking like his was. This concerned the teenager, who was this man?

"You must be wondering who I am," he started and sat down behind the desk. He motioned for Mei to sit across from him and she did. "I know who you are though, Mei Zella Sung. Although that isn't your biological name, that's Mei Taylor Coulson."

Mei had only glanced at the folder that day when she found out Coulson and May were her parents, so at that moment she was completely shocked. She had a different middle name? She was aware that her last name was different, but her middle?

"Who are you and why do you have an office?" Mei demanded.

"I'm Robert Gonzales, Director of SHIELD. The real SHIELD," he said to her.

"Coulson is the director of SHIELD, actually."

"We've co-directing," said a voice from the doorway. There stood Coulson, May was behind him. The two walked into the room and closed the door again. "I thought we were going to discuss when we told Mei."

"I saw an opportunity, I don't believe in keeping people in the dark." the Robert guy said. Mei looked around at all the adults. Suddenly she felt very cornered.

"I don't believe in ignoring said person you are talking about," Mei stated loudly. The three adults looked over at her. "Yeah, hi, I'm still here. Can I go? I just wanted some food."

May nodded at her, giving her permission to leave.

"We'll be talking again." Robert said to her. Mei shrugged and walked past May to leave. That's when she smelt it, the perfume. It was May that had been in her room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own anything MARVEL.


	22. Midnight Stroll

Mei wasn't completely sure why May had been in her bedroom but she didn't ask as she walked past. That was one conversation she didn't feel like being a part of, all she knew was that an agent, an agent that just happened to be her mother (although they didn't have that type of relationship really) had been in (sleeping in?) her room.

She her walk to the kitchen quickly and opened the fridge, to see it was actually mostly empty. That shocked Mei, because usually it was kept full of food.

"Nobody has been out on a food run in a while," she turned around to see Bobbi standing in the doorway.

"You never left?" Mei asked curiously.

"Nope, someone had to stay and man the base," Bobbi responded as she walked into the room and reached up to grab something. From over Mei's head, she pulled out one of the old mugs, and opened the lid to reveal some energy bars. "It's all we got right now, I think someone will go shopping tomorrow."

"They better." Mei joked as she gratefully took it from her. "Thanks."

"No problem," Bobbi said as she leaned against the counter. Mei hopped up onto the one across from her as she munched on the bar.

Although everything seemed pretty dark before, it was starting to feel even darker. Stuff was happening that she wasn't fully aware of, and bad things were happening inside this base right under her. Yet, she had no clue what it was.

"Have you see Skye?" Mei asked finally. Bobbi's expression changed for a split second before going back to normal, Mei couldn't figure out what it was. Pain? Sadness? Remorse? Anger? Confusion? Emotions were so confusing.

"No, she wasn't with you?" Bobbi said. Mei studied her for a second before responding.

"Nope."

"Weird, you two were close."

"It isn't like she died…" Mei trailed off as she hopped off of the counter. "Thanks for the energy bar, by the way."

Mei walked off to her room deep in thought. Where was Skye? Was she dead, because if she was then that'd be very unfortunate.

* * *

"Okay little fox, where you hiding today?" Mei said quietly as she walked around in the forest around the base. It was the middle of the night two days later. Coulson and May weren't letting her out for some reason so Mei had to sneak out.

Although she was now starting to regret it. It was cold outside and she couldn't find the fox. She had some ideas for how she could talk to it, but none were what she could explain.

Mei wanted to tell someone but didn't in fear of being thought of as crazy, which was stupid since Coulson had alien blood and Skye could make earth quakes.

 _Ah, you're back_.

Mei turned around, her braid hitting her face with a loud  _slap_. She winced slightly but let her eyes slowly focus in the dark environment. It was starting to drizzle slightly, and Mei had forgotten to grab a sweater (or shoes) so she knew that she would end up getting sick after this.

"I don't seem to be able to stay away for long." Mei shrugged and pulled her hair over one shoulder. "So, I have some questions for you."

_Even though I would prefer not to answer your mundane questions, ask away._

Mei smiled. She had compiled a list of questions, but now as she stood there thinking they all sounded stupid.

"What's your name?" Mei decided on.

_I am a fox, not a human. I do not have a name._

"But you have a mother and father," Mei stated.

_So?_

"Obviously they gave you a name." she concluded. Mei could not see the fox's eyes but she was hypothesizing that it rolled them.

_They didn't. I was never given a name, does that answer your question?_

"I suppose," Mei said but added 'for now' in her head. "Why can I speak to you?"

She watched it sit down and she wondered what it was going to say. Mei wondered if she should just go back, or tell the fox it didn't have to answer the question but it blinked once (at least Mei thought it did) and then spoke;

_I do not know. It is not I who chooses who I talk to._

"There have been others?"

_No. Think back, have you ever talked to an animal before?_

Mei closed her eyes as she tried to think harder but the rain was coming down harder and she was starting to get soaked.

"I'll get back to you on that," replied Mei before she turned back and ran back into the base.

She was planning to go back to get bedroom when all of the sudden a hand reached out, and she was pulled into a room. Mei panicked and went to hit the person, but her hand was grabbed.

"Where were you," she looked up to see the Robert Gonzales man.

"Couldn't sleep." Mei responded.

"That doesn't answer my question." He had a very serious expression which freaked out Mei.

"A walk." She said quietly. He nodded and paused for a moment. Then he turned around a dragged Mei behind. At first, she had no clue where they were going but after about a minute she realized it. She was being taken down to the vault, the one where they kept prisoners. "Hey, I want to go back to bed."

Gonzales ignored her as he continued walking. Mei struggled in his grip but he pulled her downstairs, pushed her into the guarder area, and turned up the invisible wall. Then, without warning he pressed mute.

"I'll come back in the morning to talk," He said and walked away.

When he left the lights turned off, and Mei went and sat on the corner of the bed. She didn't like the dark, and felt closed in here. She didn't even know why she was down there.

* * *

Mei woke up in the morning when she heard two pairs of footsteps coming down the stairs heavily. She felt groggy as she opened her eyes to see May punching a couple buttons on the device that controlled the room.

Mei sat up, her clothes stuck to her skin awkwardly and she felt colder than she usually did. She wasn't happy about this because she wanted to just be in her actual room. Not in clothes that were previously soaked.

"Mei, what happened?" May asked.

"I went out for a walk and when I came back Gonzales freaked." Mei explained as she sat up. Coulson frowned as May walked over to Mei and stood up with her. Mei wasn't completely sure why till her whole body felt like jelly.

"Let's go to your room," May said as she guided Mei up the stairs.

They were stopped though by Gonzales and Bobbi. "What are you doing? She was down there for a reason," he said crossly.

"A reason that you didn't put through me, why was she down there?" Coulson asked.

"She was out at three am, I needed to question her on whether she was hydra or not." Gonzales explained. May rolled her eyes, but her grip tightened around Mei's shoulders. Mei realized that she was going to be questioned about that later.

Coulson seemed to contemplate his answer for a second. "We will talk to Mei about this, you aren't to talk her about these types of things. No locking her down there, she is an innocent thirteen year old, not an adult."

Gonzales rolled his eyes but seemed to agree to these terms, at least for now, as he walked away with Bobbi following behind, looking back sadly.


	23. Subconscious

When Mei woke up she didn’t feel anything. She didn’t feel too hot, she didn’t feel too cold. She sat up and went to the bathroom that was across the hall.

The showers scolding hot water poured onto her and rolled off in balls of while steam. Mei didn’t do anything though as she stood under it, naked, curled into herself. As she could be when she was standing. She felt like a child, hurt and lost. Yet still at home.

After ten minutes she got out, got dressed into the pyjamas she was in. They were a soft pink with white stripes. They were extremely soft, softer than Mei had ever felt. It was as though they weren’t even real.

She stepped out into the hallway, her hair sticking to her face and neck, dripping down her shirt. She shivered.

Nobody gave her a second glance. Actually, nobody gave her a first glance either. Mei was invisible, walking in a place that nobody could come to without paying a price.

She realized everything was brighter than usual, and as she walked and looked around, everything became brighter.

Soon she stopped beside Coulson and May.

“Are you on their side?” Coulson asked her. It seemed as though they were arguing.

“I’m on SHIELDs side.” May replied as she looked at him blankly. The look seemed to hurt him, even though Mei had seen her give it hundreds of times before.

Mei continued on, walking, soon it became unbearably bright, and she shielded her eyes. The light was hot and intense. It died down almost as fast as it started, and when Mei lowered her arms, she saw she was in the forest.

Subconsciously, Mei was wondering how this happened. There were doors she had to go through, things she had to pass through, ID badges she had to pass, just to be allowed out of the base.

Yet, there she was, outside in the sunlight. It was hot, and warmed her skin.

Looking down, she saw that she was now in her pink jean shorts and her black owl top. Touching the top of her head, she pulled down her sunglasses.

Everything was normal though. On the surface of her brain, this all worked. This was how everything was supposed to be.

She walked a bit, her feet breaking small branches and leaves. Nothing hurt though, nothing punctured her feet.

Mei walked, and things crunched. She walked forward, her head looked to each side at everything.

Although there were dead plants on the ground, all the trees were alive. They were perfect, it looked better than it did usually. Suddenly, she heard a rustling.

“Hello?” she called out. Her voice was airy, light. It carried with the wind. Her hair flew around her face as her eyes caught sight of something red.

_You will find out soon_

“What?” Mei said in confusion. What would she be finding out? Was it something she needed to find out soon?

_You will find out soon_

The red turned into a blob, and the blob focused into the fox. It was beautiful, she had never seen it in this light before. It looked like a creature from a fairy tale, one that would help her find her prince.

“What will I find soon?” Mei asked. The wind started to rawer, and Mei could hardly hear over its whistles. The fox seemed to speak again, but Mei couldn’t hear. “Pardon?”

 _You will find out the answers to your questions soon_. _The wolf will tell you soon_

“What wolf?” Mei cried out as she started to step forward.

The ground seemed to give way beneath her feet. Mei fell forwards and clawed at the ground. Nothing was working though, everything just went between her fingers like it was sand.

Mei closed her eyes and fell into the fetal position, but soon the wind stopped. Everything became silent. She slowly opened her eyes and saw that she was no longer in the forest.

Slowly she sat up on the cobblestone. Everything was calm, peaceful. There were beautiful scents, flowers. Daisies, roses, cherry blossoms. Mei looked around, everything was beautiful here.

There were plants everywhere, and a couple buildings, but everything was empty.

Mei stood up, and saw that she was now wearing her long sleeved black shirt, her white skinny jeans. This wasn’t right.

Everything was starting to come together, her head wasn’t so jumbled. Yet, it was still as though this was correct. Even though there was one part of Mei telling her that this wasn’t right, none of this was logical, there was another part telling her that this was right. Her world was supposed to be pieced together like this.

Mei stood up, and once her two feet were on the ground, she continued to look at the things in front of her.

Everything was quiet, until she heard a throat being cleared behind her.

She turned quickly to see Skye standing there. Smiling. Her bangs were still perfectly messy. She looked happy, she was glowing. Yet, there was another look there. Something deep in her eyes, a look that Mei didn’t know whether or not she’d seen before.

Skye was also sad. There was a hint of sadness.

“I’m safe,” Skye said to her. Mei took a step forward. “I’m safe and alive.” Skye repeated. Mei continued forward. Her hand touched Skye, but it didn’t actually touch, it went through. Skye disappeared, like a smoke image being waved away by a hang. “I’m home.” Were the words that were left echoing.

Mei jumped back.

“Skye.” She gasped. Her head whipped to the right, then the left, wondering if the older girl had learnt to teleport or something of that nature.

When Mei looked forward again, she saw a different lady standing there. She was Asian, with long hair, and scars on her face.

She didn’t say anything as she looked at Mei, and Mei didn’t say anything as she looked at her. There was an unsettled feeling in Mei’s stomach, like something was going to happen.

“Leaves us alone.” The lady said as Mei stepped forward. When Mei’s foot landed on the ground, everything shook slightly. Her arms instantly went out to balance herself, but the lady didn’t seem to need to. It was as though she was floating. “Go away, leave us alone.” She said again.

Mei started word again, but everything started to shake again. She felt her heart start to beat quickly, and soon there was a beeping noise. It was getting louder.

“Don’t come again!” echoed in her subconscious as everything went dark once again. Mei closed her eyes, hoping for everything to be over.

The beeping continued, but now there was a smell of antistatic, there were sounds of people talking in the background, though it was too quiet for her to understand. It was like a hum.

Mei realized she was laying on something soft, and the clothes she had on were light and scratchy. There was a slight pressure on her, arms. And the smell of perfume. May.

Mei opened her eyes. Everything was blurry, and her head a little fuzzy.

Was that all just a dream? Or was this a dream?

“Mei?” she heard May’s voice from behind her and the arms tightened. Mei didn’t say anything, just rolled closer. It was then she realized something. _It was freezing._ “Mei’s awake,” May called louder.

Mei closed her eyes again as she felt a headache coming on.

“Mei, can you head me?” she heard Simmons say. Mei opened her eyes again. Simmons smiled at her. “Gave us quite a scare.”

“What happened?” Mei rasped and tried to sit up, Simmons gently pushed her back down again.

“Shh,” May shushed from behind her.

“We found you outside two days ago, soaking wet and freezing,” Simmons explained. “You’re sick right now, and you’re been in and out of consciousness since we found you.”

Mei nodded and rested back against the pillows. Suddenly something surged through her. A small fear that May would leave her there. She gripped May’s sleeve weakly.

“Not leaving,” May said quiet enough for just her to hear.

“You should be good again in a few hours. Your fever has gone down significantly. You should be good as new in a couple of days, and when you’re up for it we can talk about what happened when you were out there.”

“And why you were there,” Coulson cut in from the doorway. Mei nodded but didn’t say anything as she rolled over so she was facing May and curled into the older woman for warmth. May rubbed her hand up and down Mei’s back, trying to bring some warmth back into her still ice cold skin.

“Mei, you were muttering in your sleep,” Simmons said as she looked at the machined around the bed. “Did you see anything distressing?”

“No, only Skye.” Mei said quietly. “And she was… happy.”


	24. A glimpse into the past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to say that is this chapter involve the slight showing of violence towards a child (although very mild) along with some foster care. I have no experience with these things, therefore I am sorry if I get anything wrong.

Although Mei didn't get sick often, the last time she had felt almost this gross (or worse, really she couldn't remember that well) was when she first went to live with Agent. While it was common knowledge that she had lived with a SHIELD agent before coming to live here at the base, it wasn't common knowledge that she hadn't lived with him since after she was born. Actually sometimes she even forgot she hadn't.

Mei had come to realize after hearing Skye's story, about how she was bounced from home to home by SHIELD, that she was like the older girl in a way. She had also been taken from home to home, the only difference that she could tell was that they wanted to keep her. Although, she could have been completely wrong and they wanted to keep Skye, Mei just didn't know because she never actually had time to ask Skye any questions.

She had learnt from an early age that there was a higher power moving her from place to place. It wasn't hard to tell when she constantly heard complaining about it. Mei wasn't happy about it though, because she constantly was changing schools or making new friends. Getting used to a new bedroom every month or so also wasn't ideal. Mei learnt to adapt though. She had to learn to adapt or nothing would work out properly. And it need to, didn't it?

That's why she had always prided herself in being a marvellous actor in school. Nobody knew she was unhappy about moving, they all thought she was oblivious to it happening. Yet, she knew. Here though? Surrounded by spies? She was the worst, most amateur of them all. Even Jemma was better than her!

So, even though Mei attempted to hide her sickness, make it seem as though she was perfectly fine like May did, everyone at the base could see through it. Either she was going soft (although she had never been hard to begin with) or she was just a shit actor.

Mei knew she wasn't  _that_  sick though. Really, she was just cold, well in her mind she was just cold. The fever had subsided and Mei was even getting her appetite back, but Jemma had just insisted that she stayed in bed. Mei was not happy about this, but Coulson and May agreed to it. So there she was, lying in bed, board out of her mind.

Mei didn't think it was that bad, and really it wasn't like she was dying. Plus, she was thirteen not five, she could handle herself.

* * *

_Mei had been five the first time she met Agent. She could even remember what her hair had been like that day (bangs that went across her forehead and pigtails, typical five year old hair), although it didn't actually matter._

_She had been moving away from the Parker household. She had been living there for two months, one of the longest stays. She'd assumed that she had been staying there a lot longer. Two months did seem like years to someone her age._

_When leaving, nobody usually talked to her. It got to the point when Mei could simply see the people in suits and know it was time to go. It was a habit, and thankfully nobody that had lived with wore suits. It would have been awkward for the child to try and explain exactly why she was prepared to leave their house when they got home for dinner._

_The Parkers were wonderful people, there was no denying that. They gave Mei food, shelter, a bedroom, and even some new clothing. Mei wanted to get comfortable there, really she did. When their dogs came up to her, she acted as though she hated them, or was allergic. Really, all Mei wanted to do was hug them._

_That should have been her first clue that something was going on._

_BARK_

Hugs?

_Mei heard words where there were none. In dead air, when Mrs. Parker was speaking. Mei wasn't old enough to know not to say anything though. So she'd ask. Ask why the dog was asking for hugs. She didn't want to hug it, the animal was dirty. All she would be told is that she had a wonderful imagination. Five year old Mei accepted this. She had an imagination, maybe she could tell the suits. Because she knew it was only a matter of time before they arrived._

_Three days later, they did._

_Agent appeared about two months into her stay at the Parkers. Mei had just been wondering if she should accept the fact that they were never coming for her again. Apparently, they were. She watched out her bedroom window as he got out of his black SUV with the black tinted windows._

_She simply walked to her bed, reached under it, grabbed her bag, and started to pack. It was something that she became so used to, it wasn't weird not to do it. It was a routine that was so imprinted on her mind it was probably unhealthy. But, the simple act was something that she never thought about. She never knew it was unhealthy._

_Mei had given them a hug, something that wasn't the wisest in the world, and gotten in the SUV without a complaint. The drive was across town, a cross a bridge, into the Manhattan area. She'd stared out the window the whole time, looking at the buildings in awe. Really, they never processed in her mind. How, in human history, did creatures so small and fragile like themselves, make such large buildings?_

_The whole time, Agent didn't speak to her. He looked down at his cellphone, typing._

_Agent delivered her to the front door of the new house. It was in an apartment building. Really, all it looked like was a dad returning a daughter to a mom from a weekend away. A little girl with a Barbie suitcase, a smile on her face. Yet, this was far from that._

_Mei met Agent for the second time almost a year later. She'd been to a different home at least twice by that time. And sadly, they didn't meet in the normal pack-your-bags-we're-leaving way that she was used to, it was in the why-the-hell-are-you-in-the-hospital way. It wasn't exactly Mei's fault she had ended up in the hospital, and it scared her quite a bit because of the whole everything is white deal. It was like she had never been to a bad home, well…_

_Actually, by that point Mei had never been to a home that she could deem a 'bad home'. It was more like, places she was and rather wouldn't be. This home though, this one was one she would definitely call a bad home later in life. It involved too much anger between two people that were married. They both had boiling tempers, and while usually there would be one spouse to calm the other down, it wasn't like that there._

_Mei had been placed in the hospital because they both had gotten mad at the same time. She'd accidently dropped a place, which caused the man to get mad at her, the woman then got mad at her. And while Mei should have felt honoured that someone felt protective over her, she just wanted the yelling to stop._

_She had tried to clean up the plate, but cut her hands. The man in an attempt not to hurt anyone, threw a plate in the direction of Mei. Really, he had contradicted himself but nobody was paying attention to that fact._

_It never actually hit Mei, more like the wall beside her. Yet, she was so started she lost her balance and fell down the four steps that she was standing at the top of. Instantly, they rushed to her aid and tried to calm down their other foster daughter. She was sixteen though, and called the police. Maybe if she had been younger the police wouldn't have believed her about what had happened, saying that a plate just fell and shattered. Yet, they showed up and Mei was brought to the hospital, and the other girl… well Mei never had heard from her again._

_Mei really wasn't that hurt, only a few cuts, and a broken arm. Yet, she never got to see them again. She looked around the room nervously when everyone left. It was then Mei vowed never to go to a hospital again._

_She stared out the open window, it was summer and they were allowing a nice breeze to flow through the room, when a bird appeared. What type of bird? While Mei never actually did like birds so that was information she never actually found out._

_TWEET TWEET. TWEET TWEET_

Spread your wings and you will sore

" _Pardon?" Mei had said in shock but the bird flew away. Mei was disappointed, but when she heard a throat cleared she looked over to the door. It was Agent._

_He walked into her room like he owned the place, and Mei had to resist the urge to automatically go and pack. She couldn't do that here, she had none of her stuff. Yet, she knew that she'd be going to a new home. One where she would get comfortable, and then have to leave again. What Mei didn't know, was that the next home she'd be going to was his. And it would be the most permanent of them all._

_Agent lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Mei had never been there before. And while it didn't look as fancy as where she lived before, it seemed more… homey. In a way, it was like Mei was supposed to be there the whole time._

_There was a staircase, and at the end of that hallway she was told was her bedroom. She went in, and it was decorated in pink with fairy lights. Agent never explained how that happened, but Mei never questioned it. She loved it._

_He signed her up for her new school, and that was that. They told everyone that Mei was his child, her mom died years ago. Nobody questioned it, and Mei didn't either. She knew though, she knew he wasn't her father._

_Mei never even questioned the fact that she never moved again. She never questioned the fact that she just left the hospital with an essentially strange man. Although, he did dress in a suit so that had to at least mean he wasn't psycho, right?_

_One thing though, which was that Agent never told Mei his real name. Now, that was something Mei was pretty sure she needed to know. He told her to call him Agent. Nothing else to go with it. He was fine with it, and really Mei was too. She didn't want to be asked questions though, because even at the age of six it bothered her._

" _What if we are outside?" Mei asked over dinner one night before taking a sip of her coke. The cup was comically large for her small hands. Agent looked over at her over their takeaway pizza. They were watching football on the television, something Mei wasn't a fan of but watched anyways. She could take her pizza upstairs, she knew that. Yet, she didn't._

_Agent chewed as he thought about the child's question. It was an odd question to ask in the middle of silence, and Agent was pretty confused. Mei had no prompting for this question, yet she was staring at him like she expected him to be able to read her little mind._

" _What are you going on about, Mayday?" Agent called her that because he had stated that she was sometimes like an emergency procedure, having to be taken to one place to another quickly and efficiently. So far, that hadn't happened again._

" _I call you Agent," Mei said around a mouthful of pizza. Agent was surprized it didn't all fall out of her mouth._

" _Chew your food before you speak." Agent had a gruff voice, it was one that demanded you listen. Really, it wasn't soothing but Mei didn't mind it. Besides, the demanding aura of it worked well with Mei. She always listened. Agent wasn't sure whether it was because her parents were exception agents, or it was just because of who she was. She wasn't a bad kid, far from it. She held a hopeful expression in her eyes, one that he knew would one day be squished._

_Mei swallowed the food painfully before continuing. "If we are outside the house, do I still call you Agent?"_

_Agent had to pause and think about that. She couldn't call him Agent outside of the home, or around untrustworthy people. That could cause someone to find out about SHIELD, and that would ruin everything._

" _You can call me dad?" he suggested, yet as soon as he said it he regretted it. It was weird._

_Mei looked scared of him sometimes, he had seen it before. And this was one of those times. Yet, she was strong, so she spoke up. "You aren't my dad though. I can only call my dad, dad. It's a rule, and you have to follow rules." She explained it as though she was explaining it to a child. He was the adult and she was the child, so this was a weird change in dynamics. "Duh." She took another bite, getting pizza all over her face._

_Agent sighed at her response. Maria had told him that taking care of a child was easy when she debriefed him about this mission. Either she vastly overestimated his parenting abilities, was lying to him, or had never taken care of a child before. Because this, this was not easy. Then again, Agent realized it could just me Mei that was not easy to take care of. Maybe she was broken. Could you take a child back just like a broken phone?_

" _How about A?" He asked when Mei gave him a look. Obviously he had been in his own head for too long._

" _It's stupid, but it will work." Mei shrugged as she turned her attention back to the TV. It had just made a noise, signaling that one of the teams had just scored a point. "I don't like football, can we watch Zack and Cody now?"_

_And that was the end of the conversation about names._

_Although, a new thought (not conversation, because who would he have the conversation with? Maria? She's just call him a wuss) that he wasn't a good parent came up when Agent sent Mei to school sick. Really, Agent wasn't good at this parenting thing, so at least the school would know what to do with a miserable child._

_Mei on the other hand, did not see this experience through his eyes. Because she was determined not to go back to class, and had actually ended up going to the bathroom and puking! She was standing in front of the mirror, trying to convince herself to feel better when a boy walked in. He was taller, and obviously older than her._

" _What are you doing in here?" he asked curiously. Mei glared at him. He was asking her that? Seriously? He was a guy in a girl's washroom!_

" _What are you doing in here?" she asked as though it was the better question, really it was. This was against school rules!_

" _I asked you first." The boy answered. He was not pleased. Why did the girl have to question him? She was younger, and he was older. Therefore, he had seniority over answers._

" _It's the girl's washroom." Mei responded smartly. The two glared at each other for a while._

" _You know, it could be a boy's washroom with a cape. For super heroes. You don't look like a super hero." Mei and the boy continued their glares. Mei would not give into this boy. But her eyes softened after a while, this was tiring!_

" _I puked." She whispered and rubbed her arm, trying to rub away the coldness that wasn't there._

" _Gross." The boy said and wrinkled his nose, then decided that since she told him, he'd tell her. "I hate my teacher, so I'm avoiding class." Mei nodded in understanding. She'd be a liar to say she hadn't done that before, she had. Many times actually. "I'm Jordan by the way, but call me Jordi."_

" _I'm Mei."_

" _Like the month?" Jordi seemed genuinely confused._

" _No. I don't spell it that way. I spell it M-E-I, much cooler." Mei explained with a smile. She liked how her name was different than the other May's of the world._

" _Cool." Jordi said with a grin. That was when they heard it, and the smile fell right off of his face. It was the click-clack of heels on the ground. A teacher was coming into the washroom._

_Jordi quickly his in a stall, he was not going to be caught in here. He was already in enough trouble for skipping gym! He watched from under the stall door though, as glossy red heels stopped in front of Mei's light up Cinderella sneakers._

" _Mei Sung, what in the world are you going out of class?" the teacher asked. It wasn't just a teacher, he realized. It was the principal! And if he was caught, he would be in for a very long detention, and a call to his parents!_

" _I threw up." Mei said bluntly. Obvious she was trying to help him. The sooner they were out, the sooner Jordi could get out._

" _Come with me, we'll phone your father." The principal had said. He watched the shoes turn direction, and Mei's follow._

" _He isn't my father," Mei responded as she followed her. "He's my A." Jordi was confused by this statement. What in the world was an A?_

* * *

In the end, Mei was just glad she was not throwing up. She hated the feeling, and the taste. And every time she did it she felt the urge to shower after.

She sighed and rolled over on her bed carefully and gracefully. Everyone had disappeared somewhere, and Mei was pretty sure that at least half the team had gone. It was too quiet and nobody was coming to make sure she was okay.

Mei sighed again and looked over at the wall. She had been doing too much sighing lately, but had to repress another one when she realized her gaze was fixed on the only wall in her bedroom that was empty. It was quite a shitty wall to look at, it wasn't even a nice colour! But Mei did it anyways, because she was bored. Oh so, so bored.

The girl wished that someone else was here with her, even though they had been getting on her nerves lately. But three nights ago Coulson had come in and said they'd talk about everything later, and that they had pressing matters to attend to before leaving. That was the last she'd seen of anyone. There was nobody here, well besides the person that kept bringing her food and placing it on her night table. She had been left with no explanation. At least when she was little she knew it was the higher power that was taking everything from her!

That was not okay.  _This_  was not okay. Nope, not at all.

Mei sighed (once again) and sat up. Okay, so she didn't feel that bad. Only a headache… sore throat… little to no voice… stuffy nose… no big deal! At least she wasn't dying! That was the only time she would get bed rest. For now, she needed to find something or someone.

She stood up slowly, and changed into something that was more presentable for being outside her room. It turned out to become her old dance tank top from when she actually took dance (she hadn't grown since she was ten, so while it was a big tight around the chest it fit well otherwise) and American eagle sweat pants. Yup, the outfit of a lazy teenager.

Mei walked out of her room is bare feet and looked around. The corridor was empty, and cold. What the hell? She frowned at this, there wasn't even the sound of people. What was going on?

"Ms. Coulson." Nobody called her that, so Mei turned around in shock and confusion. Had Coulson told people to call her that? She may be his child, but she never agreed to that. At least let her become Mei May! Yet, being Mei Coulson almost seemed normal. Almost. Mei was not okay with almost. It was either all in, or all out.

"Yes?" she tried to answer in her regular voice, yet it came out as almost a whisper. This was not enjoyable. Yet, the man seemed to be able to hear her just fine.

"I have strict instructions to keep you in your room. Someone will come and get you when it is safe." Mei frowned but did as she was told by the stern looking agent. She was even more confused. They were in danger? Shouldn't the team be here? Yet, if they were in a large amount of danger wouldn't she be sent back to New York or Spain? What the hell was going on here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you've probably noticed, most of this chapter is a little glimpse into the past of Mei. I was wondering if the talking animal thing should be concentrated just on the fox and I've decided not.
> 
> Also, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been distracted with the end of school, I still have one class left to finish but it is online, youtube, friends (also slightly avoiding friends) yet none of this is an excuse for not writing.
> 
> So please excuse my absence and I hope you've liked the chapter!
> 
> I do not own Marvel


	25. Immediately after the Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone comes home and Mei realizes change is happening quicker than she thought

After continuous attempts to leave her room later that day, even for something such as soup (because even though Mei was sick, she was only human and needed to eat) she somehow couldn't get out. It seemed that they had locked it better than she thought, especially since Mei didn't even know there was a lock on the door!

Mei was indeed not impressed with his, because while she loved her room she wanted to get out and do something. That something maybe have been getting food, preferably ramen noodles. And while she should have been thanking the person who put food in her room when she wasn't paying attention, there wasn't much to thank. It was just as horrible as hospital food, and it wasn't something Mei wanted to put in her system.

So, Mei did not eat the food having decided she'd rather go hungry, and woke up the next morning surprisingly not hungry.  _Maybe it is one of those things that if you ignore it it eventually goes away_ , Mei thought to herself. The weird thing was, her bedroom door was opened a bit and the normal sounds of the base were filtering through. It had been closed when she went to sleep, and Mei was quite certain that she didn't sleep walk.

Mei tilted her head to the side slightly in confusion before walking to the attached bathroom to change into her leggings and a sweater before venturing out of the room. It wasn't like she was embarrassed to be out in her pajamas but would prefer a little bit more cover if there were lots of people she didn't know, again.

Everything was coated in a quiet, a comforting quiet that wasn't still. It comforted Mei, because while it was quiet she still heard the murmurs of voices around her. Mei ventured further out into the chilly hallway, and started to walk down the cement corridor. Most the time, this place seemed iery, being made of only cement, but somehow it felt nice today.

As she walked past open doors Mei would peer into them to see if there was anyone she was particularly close with, although she never saw any of them. When the doors were closed, Mei would stop and hesitate outside of them, waiting for voices to float through the door. They never did.

Even though she never talked to them, ever room she looked into, every hidden nook, there was an agent of two, patching themselves or the other up. They were hurt, battered, bruised, because of something that had happened that Mei didn't even know about yet.

And as Mei thought about it more, and concentrated on the air, it started to have the sharp smell of a hospital. The smell that made the girl anxious, the smell that made her remember her life in foster care and then with Agent.

Finally, Mei found the one room that had someone she actually wanted to see in it. May. Mei quietly crept towards it until she was outside the open door, Mei moved till she was just able to see into the room. Mei was there, sitting on her bed, tending to a wound. Mei was confused about the fact that May was back and she hadn't seen anyone else. She also had a different feeling though.

She felt guilty that May was hurt. It was a feeling that she didn't like, and Mei realized that it was because May was her mother. And while the girl had tried to deny it, not wanting the fact to be particularly true. Mei needed a mother, and May was right there. Her biological mother, the lady that housed her in her womb for nine months. Mei never said anything though, she didn't want May to know Mei was ready for her to be her mother. Mei didn't want her to know that she was ready to even call May  _mom_ , as strange as it seemed to be to her.

First thing was first though, Mei needed to know what had happened. "May, what's going on?" Mei asked, announcing her presence. Although, she assumed that May already knew that she was there. She was May after all, the ninja. The older woman looked up from her wrist and at the small teenager standing in her doorway.

"You should be in bed, resting." May stated as she ignored the question and instead studied Mei's face.

"I should be in bed? Really? Don't go side stepping my questions, what is going on?" Mei demanded. May was probably right, she needed to be in bed. Although Mei didn't think she was that sick, apparently she was. Mei wanted to know what had happened though, and even if that meant she had ignore the fact that she felt like shit.

May sighed at the insistence of Mei and looked down at her bandaged wrist for a moment before beckoning Mei further into the room. Neither spoke though as Mei perched on the edge of May's bed, one that was bigger than hers. The room was bigger too though, so it made sense. Bigger bed for an older person with a bigger room. Mei kept a space between the two.

"Things are going to be changing around here," May said carefully as though she didn't know how to explain what was on her mind. Mei looked at her, curiously. What was she talking about? Did she not classify what had happened lately here a change? Because it was a change, quite a big change at that.

"Really, never guessed." Mei sassed. May shot her a warning glance. "Sorry," Mei apologized quickly. "But seriously, with what had been happening?" May sighed and glanced up at the ceiling. All of these mannerisms, expressions… they were uncharacteristic of her. Mei had always known her to be strong, emotionally and physically. Mei was beginning to wonder if all of this ninja-ing and butt kicking was getting too much for the woman.

May seemed to think about her words before she spoke this time, so she wouldn't be slow when saying it. "Mei, Coulson had been in an accident, Bobbi was shot… I think I need to get away for a bit. I'm going to go away for a bit."

"Okay…" Mei replied. May nodded in a dismissive way as she went back to tending her wounds. Mei took that as her cue to leave the room, and slowly stood. She wanted to give May time to speak again. It didn't happen though, and so Mei walked out of the room.

As Mei walked towards the hospital wing she wondered what kind of accident Coulson could have been in. And what about Bobbi? How had she been shot? Well not how, Mei knew the mechanics about it, why had she been shot was a better question. What had gone down while she was on base arrest?

* * *

As it turns out, Mack had cut off Coulson's hand to stop him from being killed by that stupid alien device. It was an alarming change, Mei wasn't going to lie about that. Even Coulson had said it was weird to wake up in the morning and not be able to use that hand.

 _Sometimes_ , he had said,  _it feels like it is still there. A phantom limb is was it is called._

It had been three weeks since Mei woke up and found out everyone was back. Coulson was back to walking around the office, even with his sling on he got everything done. Bobbi was still in the hospital wing. She had broken ribs, a gunshot wound, and a shattered knee. Hunter stayed with her most of the time.

May was finishing up her packing for her vacation. She never told Mei where she was going, and Mei never asked. Currently, Mei was sitting in Coulson's office on the comfy couch he had in there. He was talking to Andrew Garner, someone that Mei had suspicions of dating May. It wasn't that she would be mad at May for dating him, she was just rooting for her and Coulson to get together.

For the most part, Mei wasn't sick anymore. She just tired more than she usually would have. She hung out in Coulson's office more too, a book in her lap usually.

Soon Andrew left the room and headed towards the hanger. Obviously he was leaving with May. He had sent her a look, wondering if she was going to say goodbye. May wasn't coming to say goodbye to her, so why would she go and say goodbye?

"Why is May leaving again?" Mei asked Coulson as she glanced up at him from the black and white pages of her book.

Coulson didn't look over when he answered. "She is going on a well-deserved vacation."

"Which him though? Really? Honestly, you and Bobbi need a vacation the most." Mei looked pointedly at his used to be arm.

Coulson shrugged as he grabbed his tablet. "I'm the director, I don't get a vacation."

"But why with him?"

"We need to choose our battles, Mei," Coulson answered as he sat down heavily beside her after she curled her legs closer to her body. "Sometimes, things need to be left alone. Anyways, why don't you go outside anymore? You've been staying inside more and more. I know about your old late night wanderings, and while I don't approve they haven't been happening."

Mei didn't feel like going outside, that made it more possible for an animal to start talking to her, and that really wasn't on her list of things she wanted to do at that moment. Nope. But what choice was she going to have? She needed to figure out this thing soon.

"What are you, my father?" Mei said. Suddenly she felt a tension in the room. Right, he was her father.

"Technically speaking, yes." Coulson replied.

Decided that the subject needed to be changed, and quickly, Mei spoke. "We should go to New York." Mei announced. "I want to see the tower, or, maybe that new facility that Cap is making. Plus, shopping."

"Maybe," Coulson said without looking up from the screen. Mei rolled her eyes before standing up and walking towards the doors.

"I'm going to go find Fitz, maybe he will be more fun."

Coulson laughed out loud as Mei disappeared around the corner smiling. Mei found herself walking not towards the science labs, but towards the hanger. She guessed it had to do with her curiosity towards May and Andrew. Mei was even correct, when she watched them get into one of the jets together. Briefly she wondered where they were going to go.

She shook the questions out of her head though, as she turned the correct way to get to the labs and started walking. She didn't get very far though when she bumped into Fitz. He looked so happy, and Mei grinned at him.

"I get to go on a date with Jemma!" He said with a large grin. Mei smiled happily back as she linked her arm with his as they headed towards the common area.

"We should find you something to wear for this date," Mei smiled up at the man she considered her brother. As they passed them, Mei glanced over at the doors to the outside and felt something pull her towards them. She ignored it though, but deep down she knew she needed to talk to someone about this. And soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own anything MARVEL. Sorry it takes so long for me to upload, I get distracted.


	26. Nobody is Getting Phoned

Mei was happily dozing off in her room when she heard the sound of someone running down the hallway. It was an odd sound to hear in a usually silent secret base, especially since it was supposed to be calm now that the little war was over. It wasn't nice when it wasn't calm, it was quite annoying actually. Especially when it was eleven o'clock at night.

The running never did cease though, it just continued until it got somewhere down the hallway. There was the sound of a door hitting a wall. The frantic Fitz voice was what made her finally get up to go investigate.

As she trudged down the hallway, following his voice, she wondered why she always got up for this. It wasn't as though she wanted to be here. The sourced was down in Coulson's room, which confused Mei. She walked through the door to see Fitz standing there, waving his arms around like a lunatic as he spoke what seemed like a millions words per hour. Coulson simply stared at him, looking stunned.

Mei looked back and forth from Fitz to Coulson before speaking. "What's going on?" she asked as she stepped further into the room. She was ignored by Fitz as he kept speaking, Coulson simply glanced over at her, but his eyes said I don't even know.

"We need to find Jemma!" Fitz yelled. Where's Jemma? Mei thought. "That… that thing ate her! Get Mack! Call May back! We need everyone on this!" Fitz continued to yell. Mei stared at his back in shock. Something ate Jemma. What thing would eat a human sized Jemma?

"Mei, how nice of you to join us," Coulson said when he could get a word into the seemingly one sided conversation. Fitz turned around to look at her.

"Mei can help too!" he yelped. Mei stared at him in shock. She was helping? In what world did they even want her help?

She also really didn't know what was going on besides a vague statement that Jemma had been eaten. So really, Mei wanted to know what she was helping with before she agreed. "It would help if I knew what was going on?"

Fitz sighed in a way that seemed to say come on Mei, get with the program. Geez, "The blob thing are Jemma!" he yelled at Mei.

"Way to be technical, Fitz." Mei said sarcastically before the words fully sunk in. Jemma actually had been eaten? This wasn't some stupid joke? And if it was true, which by his panic it obviously was, would she even still be alive? "We need to get her!"

Coulson sighed and rubbed his face with his hand. Mei could tell he was tired. "First we need to sleep so we can actually think about how to approach this."

Mei shook her head. "We need May," she replied as she started to turn and leave the room. "I'm going to phone her-"

"Nobody is phoning anybody," Coulson stated as he looked at the two who froze in their spots as they had gone to leave. "May does not get to know what is happening. Nobody is going to know what is going on besides us until we figure this out. Got it?"

The two sighed but nodded in defeat. Silently, Fitz and Mei filed out of the room. Once the door was fully closed and the two were outside of Mei's room, Fitz turned to her. "You're phoning May, right?"

"Your girlfriend. You phone the dragon and let her know that her vacations is over." Mei suggested to him. "Because I am not going to be the one to ruin her vacation, or face her wrath. No matter how much I would rather her be in this stupid jail like building than out there with her ex."

Fitz rolled his eyes as he thought that Mei wasn't taking this seriously. Mei walked inside her room and shut the door, ending the conversation.

With her beanie on, Mei held up her ID to the door scanner and waited for the heavy doors to open, permitting her to leave. With everything going on, people trying to figure out what had happened to Jemma without alerting May or Skye, Mei was getting a headache. And while there was the fact that she didn't want to go outside to the animals, she also didn't want to stay inside and become a caged animal herself.

All that she could hope was that the stupid fox would piss off and leave her alone.

Of course, not every wish she ever had would come true.

Well, look whose back.

"Yeah, not like I really have a choice," Mei snorted. "Out here with you or inside in the quiet war zone." She felt weird talking to it now. Her hair was shorter (she felt like she should lose the power of talking to animals if it was short) and it was almost to the point where she could wear shorts and tank tops. It wasn't warm enough for that though, but at least she didn't need a sweater.

Really, it wasn't cool enough to have a huge impact on how she felt, but Mei still involuntarily shivered. "Look, no offence to you but I want to know why you talk. And I don't want some snide, cryptic answer. I want it straight."

Even I don't know.

Mei let out a large sigh, even making a sound with it. "That was a horrible answer."

Find out yourself.

"Coulson?"

Coulson was sitting in his office at his desk. He was still trying to adapt to only having one hand that he could use, and Mei could tell that it was hard on him. She needed to ask him a question though, even if that meant interrupting what seemed like lots of concentration.

"Coulsonnnn" Mei tried again as she dragged out his name. There was still no reaction. "Fatherrr." She said in an obnoxious voice, her pitch going in slightly higher.

That was all it took to make up look up and over at her in shock. "Can I go to New York?" Mei asked as though she was asking for a new phone. "You can send someone to fly me there, or I could maybe take commercial air. Or we could even get a hold of Tony and if he could he could send someone. Please? I need to get outta here."

Coulson seemed to think about it. While the look that he was going to have a heart attack for what she called him had passed, he now had the look that he was thinking very hard about this. His options were sending her away from all the chaos, or keeping her here around all the chaos. Honestly, he was just too tired to argue with her at that moment.

"If you set up everything, you can go."


	27. I am not crazy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I which Mei goes to New York

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, a magical update...  
> Not going to lie, I wrote this maybe two or three weeks ago. I didn't get to editing it though until last night. I hope it was worth the wait!

Mei was looking out of the tinted windows of Maria’s car. Everything was so lush, green, and while she was used to the forest outside of the base, she wasn’t used to driving past it. It was an exhilarating feeling to be out in the open for so long, so be able to breathe as much fresh air as she pleased without anyone telling her to get back inside. Or that stupid fox appearing.

A part of Mei felt bad for leaving, Jemma was missing and she doesn’t even try and help find her. What would she be able to do though? Mei had no training. Another part of her knew it was okay to be selfish and leave. Besides, she needed (wanted?) to find out this annoying animal thing before it drove her mad.

Maria’s music taste wasn’t too far off of what Mei listened to. Yet, it was still different. Such as, while at this moment at the base, Mei may have been listening to either classical music or Taylor Swift, they were currently listening to Muse. It wasn’t bad. Mei liked Muse. She just wasn’t in the mood for it, therefore it wouldn’t have been her first choice. It was Maria’s car though, therefore she got to choose the music that they were going to listen to.

“The new Avengers base is huge,” Maria broke the music filled silence as they turned onto a dirt road and started into a wooded area. “There are three gyms… well there is basically anything you could think of. It isn’t where Stark spends most of his time though. Honestly, I think he wants to give up this hero business for good. Nobody expected him to be in it for this long though, I half expected him to bail the first chance he got.”

 _I’m glad he didn’t_ , Mei thought to herself as she caught a glimpse of what she assumed was the new base.

The view was a large, concrete building. Besides the large windows, and vastness of it, it wasn’t very remarkable. That was shocking to Mei, considering Tony had taken part in it. She would have thought it was a normal building if it hadn’t been for the recruits in shield sweaters that were running on a dirt trail that went around the perimeter. There was one spot where the grass seemed to be burnt in a large, circular pattern. Mei was suspicious of it and the reason it was there but didn’t question it. Some of the Avengers and their protégés lived there, what else did she expect? Flower beds?

“It’s nice,” Mei said as the car pulled to a stop in front of what she assumed were the main doors. Mei opened the door, grabbed her carryon bag and stepped out of the car. As soon as she shut the door with a thud, the doors opened and bright red haired woman stepped out.

“Mei,” Natasha said as she met the two at the edge of the cement. “Nice to see you,” Mei wasn’t completely sure if she was being truthful considering she wasn’t smiling.

“You too,” Mei replied anyways. She didn’t move any closer to Natasha though, she’d heard the stories from old agents. And Tony. Apparently he and she didn’t get along.

Natasha turned and started back into the building with Maria following. Mei grabbed her suitcase and ran after the two quickly to catch up. “Will you both be sleeping here?” Natasha asked.

“Just tonight,” Maria said as she looked around. “We’re headed back to the city tomorrow.” Mei noticed that she seemed to be looking for someone, not just for the pleasure of looking around at everything. “I need to talk to Rogers, where could I find him?”

“Gym. Second floor.”

Maria nodded to Natasha then turned to Mei. “See you in a bit,” she said before walking off down one of the hallways.

Mei’s nod went unnoticed by Maria as she disappeared behind some doors. Mei took this moment to look around. The ceilings were high, and there was nothing strange to give away that it wasn’t a nicely built, normal building. She guessed though, that if you went in further it might show that it was there to train a new set of heroes.

“Can you find your own way around, or do you need help?” Natasha’s voice broke the silence and Mei’s train of thought.

“As long as you point out the way to where ever Mr. Stark is I should be fine.” Mei said. She hadn’t remembered the true intent of her visit until that moment.

“Second floor in the labs. They should be labeled. You sure you don’t need help?”

Mei shook her head and Natasha shrugged, yet still looked like she didn’t believe Mei. In any case, she didn’t object and simply pointed the teenager towards the stair case before walking the opposite way. Mei had experience walking around large, concreate buildings, thanks to the base, yet she was also used to someone showing her around it first without asking her. Also she wasn’t used to the natural light. That made this slightly harder too, as all she wanted to do was bask in its warmth.

“Mei, you’re thirteen.” She said to herself quietly as she started up the staircase. “You can do this yourself.” She counted the steps as she went.

_1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8_

The fact of her age didn’t help much with her navigation skills, though. Mei quickly got lost once she was at the top of the stairs. It annoyed her that there were so many hallways, and even more that she let the hallways beat her.

Finally she saw a pair of double doors labeled with what she wanted. _Lab B_. Natasha hadn’t said which lab Tony was in, but since it said lab it seemed obvious to her that Tony would be there. Mei was wrong. Instead of seeing him and his beard, she was met with a barren lab.

There was nobody in this lab, and that felt slightly odd to her. Mei said nothing though as she looked around, and stepped in slowly. It was clean, untouched. Nobody had been there for a couple of hours at the least. This was different than the labs she was used to at the base. She walked over to one of the devices that was sitting on a lab table and saw it had some buttons (obviously) and a cord that looked like it was for a laptop. There was no laptop at that moment.

Mei reached out to touch the machine when a voice broke the overbearing silence. “Don’t touch that.” It snapped. Mei turned quickly, her hair swooshing around her face, to see a mean looking young man in a lab coat. “That is a high powered electromagnetic laser, much too advanced for a childlike mind such as your own.” Mei glared at him, something he seemed all too happy to reciprocate. “Can I _help_ you with something, _little_ girl?”

 

He seemed snarky. “I’m here to see Tony.” Mei couldn’t help the small waver that appeared in her voice as she noticed the x-acto knife that was in the man’s pocket. While it was a small thing, it still had knife in that name. That was never good. The annoying man smirked at her.

“What could _Mr. Stark_ want with a kid?” he mused to himself before straightening and looking down at her. “Right this way. Do keep up, child, I don’t have all day.”

“I am not a child.” Mei muttered bitterly but followed him. At least he would show her where Tony was. Granted, she had turned down Natasha’s offer so she couldn’t really get too annoyed. It was her own fault.

“It isn’t as though you’re useful. You probably just have a painfully average mind,” he continued while ignoring Mei’s comments. Mei looked down guiltily. It was true that she hadn’t been in school now for at least a few months. She was probably behind. It wasn’t exactly Mei’s fault, well not totally her fault. Nobody had asked her if she wanted to go back. She also never asked to go back though, so she couldn’t point the blame just at them.

Mei decided to ignore him, and didn’t respond as they walked through a different set of double doors. Inside was a lab that actually had people working in it.

“I can find my own way from here, thanks.”

The annoying man shrugged before turning around and walking off. He was muttering about kids just walking into any old lab as he turned the corner and disappeared from sight and mind.

Mei shook her head at his muttering as she turned and walked further into the lab. Nobody turned to look at her, or even give any recognition that she was there as she spotted the man that she needed to talk to.

“Mr. Stark,” she said aloud and couldn’t keep herself from grinning.

Tony turned around and smirked back, but not a nasty smirk like the other man had done.

“Mei! What a pleasant surprise,” he said. “Although, I knew you were coming so it wasn’t actually a huge surprise.” He stopped to think for a second. “Also, call be Tony.”

“Of course you knew, Tony.” Mei giggled as she walked over to stand beside him to see what he was doing. He was writing on a piece of paper, in surprisingly neat writing. It was covered in numbers that Mei couldn’t even comprehend if she tried.

Tony glanced down at the sheet and subtly covered it before turning to face Mei. “What’s the reason for your visit? Business? Pleasure? Just want to see this beautiful face?”

“I always want to see your beautiful face,” Mei chortled and rolled her eyes. “Actually, its business but that is a secret between us. I need your help with something. I would have asked Jemma and Leo, but they’re… caught up in something at the moment.”

Tony motioned for Mei to follow him, and they walked out of the lab and down the hallway. As they walked they passed the annoying lab coat man, who stared after them as they walked. Mei considered sticking her tongue out at him, but knew that would only prove his point that she was childish. Finally they got to a door that Tony opened and held for Mei as she walked into what she guessed was his temporary office. She sat down in one of the two chairs that sat in the desk across from him.

“I have a… what’s the word… predicament. I haven’t actually told anyone yet, but I need to tell someone. Honestly, I don’t know if it is fixable or not… and if not I need at least someone to help me.” Mei explained as she looked down at her hands that sat in her lap.

“Shoot.” Tony prompted as he visibly tensed, yet kept his face impassive. He wants to know what could be going on that Mei wouldn’t tell anyone else.

“Well… I don’t know how to say this…” Mei searched for the words that seemed to be escaping her brain.

 “Why don’t you start from the beginning?” Suggested Tony.

*1*

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, so you’re telling me that animals are _talking to you_!?” Tony exclaimed as he stared at Mei with wide eyes. To some, they could have been described as crazy eyes.

Mei nodded as she looked away from him and back down to her hands. “The way you were at the beginning I thought you were pregnant!” Tony laughed quietly before turning serious. “But in all seriousness, Mei, I know you don’t want to make a big deal about this. I understand that, but this is some serious shit, Mei. We don’t know if you’re simply imagining it, because I bet that is bound to happen, or if it is true. And if it is true, we need to do a brain scan to see why it is happening.”

Tony seemed to be thinking before he stood up. “Blood cultures too I think… maybe bone marrow just to make sure nothing is happening in there… you never know… some brain tests too…” Tony kept rattling off ideas as Mei sat there frozen. She didn’t want to do a bunch of tests. What if they came up inconclusive and they all thought that she was just crazy? That wouldn’t do… plus, tests meant they’d probably have to ask May and Coulson for testing too.

“We can’t tell May and Coulson,” Mei stated as she looked up at Tony. While she felt that he was making this list more for himself than her, she just had to make sure. “They are not allowed to find out about this.

“Yeah, okay, yeah.” Tony muttered distractedly. Mei sighed and stood up to follow him.

*2*

“Your brain scan is normal… blood tests normal… only one more test that I can think of…” Tony said as they walked towards his office in the tower. Mei groaned. She was starting to think this man had too many offices. But more than that, it had been a week since Tony had started doing the secret tests on her. Only so many things can go through the lab with _Jane Doe_ on it before people started to ask questions. While the tests only lasted a few minutes each day, she was still getting looks from Maria.

Mei would go do things with Pepper or Maria (or even, gasp, both!) in between the tests. They even are dinner with what seemed to be left of the Avengers.

“When Rogers complimented your earrings you blushed pretty hard.” Maria said offhandedly that night as she and Mei sat in the living area alone. Mei had been reading a book when Maria had said that, and felt her cheeks heat up quickly. It apparently wasn’t a secret that she had developed a teeny weeny teenage crush on the captain.

Now however, she was alone with Tony, and it was seeming more and more like he didn’t believe her claims of being able to talk to animals. Mei was even starting to doubt herself. Yet, she knew what she heard.

“What’s the test?” Mei questioned as she took a sip of her water.

“You’ll see,” Tony said secretively as he picked up his phone and started to type. He paused for a second and looked up. “You’re not allergic to dogs, are you?”

*3*

“I cannot believe you,” Mei grumpily grumbled as she and Tony walked down the hallway of a Dog Shelter in New York.

“Then we will be able to see if you can actually speak to animals or it was just an isolated incident. Maybe something else has been going on and you just don’t know it.”

Mei glared. “It would have shown up in the brain scans.”

“You never know, Mei.” Tony said as he kept on walking.

“I’m not crazy!” Mei almost yelled and stopped her feet like a small child. Some of the workers that were milling around to see Tony Stark stopped to look at her. She waved at them awkwardly, her face heating, before glancing at Tony out of the corner of her eyes. “I am not crazy.” She repeated in a fierce whisper.

Tony rolled his eyes at the dramatics. “I didn’t say you were,” he said calmly as they stopped in front of a door. “We’re just proving to the rest of the world you aren’t.”

“Good thing they don’t know, otherwise they’d think I was for sure,” Mei muttered. Tony laughed and Mei huffed at him. Slowly, she pushed open the door. Instantly her ears were assaulted with the loud barking of multiple dog. High pitched, low pitched, growling, everything at once making a large, annoying sound.

Mei looked around at all the dogs in the room. They were cute, she’d admit that. Their cuteness couldn’t make them a fan of the annoying noise they were making though.

“Speak to one,” Tony basically commanded as he nudged her forward. Mei stumbled slightly. She couldn’t just force talking to them. Usually they just started talking to her. Well, the fox just started talking to her. It didn’t happen the other way around, at least she didn’t believe it did.

“Hi.” Mei said into the room. All she heard was the loud, deafening barking.

“Anything?”

 “Nope.”

 

Mei was seriously starting to doubt herself now. Was she just hallucinating the fox speaking to her? She turned to look at Tony, and by the look on his face she could tell that either he thought she was crazy, or thought she was just making it up for attention.

“I swear, Tony, I’m not making it up,” Mei tried to say. “I don’t know why it isn’t-“

“Let’s go,” Tony cut her off, turned around and left the room. All Mei heard was barking. Not a voice besides the one that admitted from the humans outside the room. _Maybe I am crazy_.

*4*

_Ring, Ring, Ring_

“Hello?” a voice that Mei didn’t recognize answered the phone. It was the voice of what sounded like an old man. She pulled the phone away from her ear to make sure it was the right person. It was, unless she changed her number which Mei doubted. “Hello?”

“Umm… is Ma- Melinda May there?” Mei quickly corrected herself. This could be a person that didn’t know anyone who called May by her last name only.

“She is out today, who is this?”

“Technically I should be asking you the same question. You’re the one who answered someone else’s mobile.”

She could almost feel the eye roll on the other side of the conversation. “If you must know, I am her father. And you are?”

“… Her daughter…” Mei trailed off. The words felt foreign, weird in her mouth.

There was a long, pregnant pause, so long that Mei was starting to wonder if the person on the other line had hung up. “She never told me that she had a daughter…” the man said.

“There are a lot of things she doesn’t tell a lot of people,” Mei sighed. “Look, can you please tell her to phone me back? Thanks.” Mei was about to hang up when he spoke again.

“Where are you?” he abruptly asked.

“In New York City?”

“Is that a question or an answer?” he asked.

“An answer?” Mei said as though it was a question again. “An answer, it was an answer.” He repeated.

“How long would it take you to get to an airport?”

*4*

The house was not what Mei had expected for the father of May. But neither was the man sitting across from her. This man, William, was her mother’s father. Which made him her Grandfather. That was a word she never thought she’d associate with herself. Honestly, this was all over her head at this point.

The two were sitting in the living room. Apparently he had just had surgery for his hip, and he had a walking standing in front of him. Mei had looked around the room a couple of times already, she was just glancing from where she sat though. No way was she going to turn her back on the entry way in case this was a trap.

“Was that Melinda?” Mei asked as she looked over at the photograph of a young girl in a figure skating outfit. Mei noticed that she looked like the girl.

“Was? She isn’t dead. But yes, that is Melinda. She used to love to skate.” William said with a fond smile. He seemed to be ready to say something else when the front door opened.

“Dad?” May’s voice rang out.

“In here, Mellie,” William called out. May walked into the room, some groceries in hand, when she saw Mei sitting on the couch and froze.

“Hi, Mei,” she said. Her tone was light, but the look in her eyes told Mei that they would be having a talk later that Mei didn’t know if she wanted to be a part of.

“Hey, Ma- Melinda.” Mei corrected herself quickly. William looked between the two, obviously sensing the tension.

“I’ll start dinner,” he said before slowly getting up, in a way that Mei could tell was probably painful, and shuffled towards the kitchen with his walker.

That left the two girls in the living room. Mei decided to look anywhere but May’s face, and settled for one of the school photos that hung on the wall. In it, May looked about Mei’s age.

“Does Coulson know you’re here?” May asked in a strained voice.

“He thinks I’m in New York. That’s where I was before.” Mei tried to speak but it came out as a whisper. May nodded, and when Mei finally looked over she had tight lips. She was not happy. “Surprise?”

May never responded, and the two stood in silence. The only sound came from whatever William was making in the kitchen. Mei didn’t know what to think, or whether or not to be scared of May. Instinct told her to be afraid.

*5*

“Have you ever been skating, Mei?” William asked as they ate spaghetti. Apparently it was the easiest and quickest thing to make in the situation.

“No.” Mei replied without looking up from the bowl of saucy noodles. She twirled it around on her fork. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she was allergic to tomatoes.

“Your mother should take you one day.” William said as he tested out the word. He didn’t notice the tension in the room which became worse with that word.

The uneasy silence was there again, and William seemed to notice it. By the look in his eyes (which Mei noticed from the reflection off her water. She still wasn’t looking up) he was annoyed about the two girls not talking to each other. Obviously he wanted to see Mei in a mother roll. “Mellie, why don’t you show Mei to the guest bedroom. You two can share since there is only one.” He turned to Mei. “I don’t get much company around here.”

“The way he said that to May made Mei realize that that was final. She’d never seen anyone tell May what to do before but Coulson, and she never did it if Coulson told her too. She was actually doing what her father told her to do.

May and Mei stood up, and Mei followed May down the hallway. Mei grabbed her suitcase from where William had instructed her to place it and followed the older woman.

Once they were in the room, May closed the door and turned around to look at Mei.

“Why are you here?”

“I phoned you and he answered. He wanted to meet me.” Mei shrugged as she put the bag down on the ground. “Send me back tomorrow if you don’t want me here, since it doesn’t seem like you do.”

“I just might,” May threatened. “But first, I want to know why you were in New York.”

“I wanted to see Maria,” Mei answered before seeing the look on May’s face. Obviously she’d been caught in her lie. “You know what, it actually isn’t any of your business.”

“You know what,” May copied Mei’s tone of voice. “It actually is. Biologically, I am your mother. Technically, I am your mother. In all actually, _I. Am. Your. Mother._ You need to realize this and stop acting like I’m just another person whose rule you don’t have to follow. A mother isn’t some semi-permanent thing, Mei. They’re permanent.”

Mei looked down. Okay, so maybe she had been resisting the idea. She didn’t know what she wanted. “What do you want from me, Mei?” May’s voice was painted. And guilt coursed through Mei’s body.

“I… I don’t know what I want!” Mei exclaimed with a frown. “How am I supposed to know what I want?”

“You need to figure it out,” May replied coolly. “Because I’m either your mother or your superior. Not both.” There was a pause. “I’ll give you some time to think.”

Then, she was gone. 

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Anything MARVEL. Most of the story line was written while Agent of Shield was on winter break, or trying to go along with most canon.


End file.
